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International Workshop on Client-oriented Agrometeorological Service to Support Agricultural Development
The workshop on client-oriented agrometeorological service, which was held on March 9-10, 2006 was jointly organized by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the Meteorological and Geophysical Agency of Indonesia (BMG), Indonesian Association of Agricultural Meteorology (PERHIMPI), Ministry of Agriculture Republic of Indonesia (MOA), and Bogor Agriculture University (IPB), and it was is designed in sequence with the meeting of Working Group on Agricultural Meteorology Regional Association V (South-West Pacific) which was held in Bukittinggi, West Sumatra.
The general objective of the workshop was to provide inputs for the countries in developing actions and approach for managing climate variability and climate risks that are approached by: sharing experiences or good practices of countries in managing climate risks that include developing client oriented agrometeorological services and communicating seasonal climate prediction to agriculture users; and by exploring opportunities of using modern technology and knowledge in agrometeorological application.
The key paper presented by Dr. Sivakumar (WMO) highlighted the important link between climate variability and agriculture production, as well as the importance of climate change and agrometerological data/information to farmers as this information is the key for strategic and tactical operation in farming, and the distribution of this information is the key for agricultural development in developing country. Discussions considered experiences on the importance of good weather forecast and seasonal climate prediction and the use of the climate forecast information as part of agriculture risk management in several countries (Fiji, Indonesia, and Vanuatu). A review on models that link climate variables and agriculture pests/diseases, application of remote sensing technology, and networking and the use of automatic weather stations in agrometeorology were also presented.
Overall, the workshop highlighted the importance of information/data on climate, weather forecasts for the farmers, and strengthening the national capacity in transferring the required information to the farmers is the key for agricultural development in anticipating future trends in climate variability and climate change.