Weather information systems too complicated for farmers?
Farmers in My Loi, Vietnam, make use of their local weather station to protect their animals from weather extremes and to plan their planting times.
People often think that weather forecasting systems are complicated bits of machinery and instruments.
“Isn’t that weather station too complicated for farmers to understand?” ask some people who have seen the installed local weather station in My Loi village, north-central Vietnam.
The researchers of the Agro-climate Information Systems for Women and Ethnic Minorities (ACIS) project however note that the farmers understood immediately how to read the equipment.
With the new weather information system in place, the farmers can now plan how to protect their livestock from cold spells and other extreme climate events in their area. The weather station would also guide them on the best time to plant in light of local climatic variations.
The ACIS project in Vietnam is led by the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) and CARE International, and is supported by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) in Southeast Asia. It aims to provide climate advisories that would address the needs of women farmers and the ethnic minorities. Two farmer-managed, automatic weather stations have already been installed in Vietnam, one of which is in My Loi, a Climate-Smart Village under CCAFS.
Read the original blog story by Elisabeth Simelton, Better weather information helps save animals during cold spells, on the ICRAF blog.
Read more
- CCAFS project: Using information to enhance the adaptive capacity of women and ethnic minorities in Southeast Asia
- CCAFS blog: Spadework done for the establishment of climate-smart villages in Southeast Asia
This is a synthesis of the original blog post, Better weather information helps save animals during cold spells, first published on the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) blog.
