Participants heard about services as diverse as online North American drought watch tools to the provision of rain gauges for Nigerian farmers.
Recommendations coming from the workshop included the promotion of high-resolution weather and seasonal models for agricultural applications, the integration of in-situ and remote sensing information and the establishment of working groups made up of meteorologists, extension officers and farmers.
Dr Sarah Jackson, representing the UK’s Met Office, said “Despite the different levels of sophistication of Met Services and users, there are some common issues.
“Farmers around the world want to know what’s happening now. We think our WeatherObservationsWebsite will be of interest and useful to UK farmers.
“Not surprisingly there was also a significant interest in a longer range forecast. This was especially true in Africa where the onset of the rainy season signals it’s time to drill but they also need to know if that rainy season will be wetter or drier than average so that they can adjust what crops they plant.”
“All the Met Services also felt that there was work to do into raising awareness of the information that’s already available to farmers” added Dr Jackson.
“Here in the UK, working with the NFU, we hope that we can signpost farmers to the wealth of information that we provide on our website, whether it’s looking forward with our rainfall radar or looking back with our monthly summaries.”