CIAT, Martina Mascarenhas | May 10, 2017

Paving the way forward

 Farmers need timely and reliable information and they need it now, especially in the face of climate variability and the havoc it wreaks on their crops, and therein their livelihoods.

Climatic conditions can vary quite drastically from one year to the next. In this setting, managing a farm and relying on the previous year’s weather patterns would simply be a recipe for disaster. This, however, is often the reality for most Colombian farmers.

In 2013, to help farmers better respond to new climate patterns and Colombian agriculture to better adapt to climate variability, CIAT, through its Decision and Policy Analysis (DAPA) program, began working on the development and application of agro-climatic forecasts. Between 2013 and 2015, through an agreement with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MADR), and with support from the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), including various entities at the national level, the National Rice Federation (FEDEARROZ), the National Cereal and Legume Federation (FENALCE), the Sugarcane Research Center (Cenicaña), the Magdalena Banana Growers’ Association (ASBAMA), and the Colombian Institute for Hydrology and Environmental Studies (IDEAM), among others, CIAT and its partners developed forecasts that were then delivered to extension agents and farmers through a series of agro-climatic tours, conducted together with farmer organizations, most notably with FEDEARROZ.

Significant impact in Colombia occurred in 2014 when 170 Colombian rice farmers avoided economic losses estimated at USD 1.7 million following advice from FEDEARROZ, based on a forecast developed by a team of young scientists at CIAT. By 2015, the number of farmers with access to agro-climatic forecasts had grown from a few hundred to several thousand.

See http://blog.ciat.cgiar.org/agro-climatic-forecasts-to-the-rescue/