Sep 30, 2014
Colombia rice growers saved from ruin after being told not to plant their crop / The Guardian
Farmers given radical advice following a drought warning by scientists using a computer data tool that reaped a UN reward. Diana Cariboni reports
CGIAR Climate's insight:
Scientists at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (Ciat) had forecast that the first growing season of the year would coincide with a severe dry period and an acute water deficit. They urged farmers in the Caribbean department of Córdoba, one of the country’s five rice producing areas, to sow immediately to avoid an estimated yield decline of 3% for each week without sowing, but Fedearroz talked to farmers and recommended that they did not sow at all in the first growing season.