CCAFS Regional Agricultural Forecasting Tool (CRAFT)

Flexible forecasting tools to meet the needs of farmers

The CCAFS research theme on Climate Risk Management is supporting the development of a new open source crop forecasting platform, the CCAFS Regional Agricultural Forecasting Tool (CRAFT), that will help bring powerful advance information tools to farmers and food security decision makers, better allowing them to manage within-season climate risk to agriculture.

The Challenge

Advances in seasonal climate forecasting and crop modeling are creating new opportunities to respond to within-season climate-related risks to agriculture in areas such as trade, farm level management, food security early warning and response, and index insurance in data sparse environments. However, the lack of accessible tools integrating these advances limits their operational use. This project seizes the opportunity to meet the needs of farmers, researchers and food security decision makers by providing a flexible, open source crop forecasting platform that can be tailored to user needs.

About this work

Existing forecasting tools don’t have the flexibility needed for application across a range of contexts. They may be tied to a particular data structure or crop model involving proprietary software or data, and can’t readily be adapted to user needs. The CRAFT open source platform allows the user to tailor spatial aggregation of forecasts, data visualization, and analysis to appropriate scales, enabling wider use and application for decision-making in multiple contexts.