Objectives of the workshop
The objective of the workshop is to bring together climate service providers and agriculture sector users to:
- Discuss climate information currently available and its use by the local agriculture sector;
- Identify, explore and discuss agriculture relevant climate data in the Copernicus Climate Change data store;
- Review actionable climate indices for the agriculture sector and their generation with the CLIMTAG tool;
- Run practical sessions on indices generation and use for local adaptation planning and action with local NGO and Malawi Meteorological Services as collaborating stakeholders for service provision and delivery;
- Share experiences on case studies
- Present the Africa Drought Observatory System and its products prototype
- Discuss ways forward on upscaling phase of the CLIMTAG tool in Africa
- Collect the Interest Letters for the upscaling phase
Methodology and participation
An introductory session will include the purpose of CLIMTAG, and its methodology comprising its input datasets (including the Copernicus Climate Data Store), the agro-climate indicator definitions and its data processing and visualization approaches. The main elements of the agriculture calendar across climate regions of Africa as provided by CLIMTAG and guidance on the interpretation of CLIMTAG outputs will be presented. During the interactive sessions, participants will have the opportunity to explore CLIMTAG in guided, hands-on exercises. On the last day, a presentation of the Africa Drought Observatory System and hands-on exercise to explore the products prototype will be followed by discussions on the wayforward. The session will end with prospects for new CLIMTAG developments and offers participants the possibility to give feedback for future development and use of CLIMTAG. A closing ceremony will be organized.
The event is organized by ACMAD, VITO, OVO and KENTER with local NGOs and Malawi Meteorological Service contributing.
Facilitiation and format
Participants to the training are experts from National Meteorological and Hydrological Services, FAO country representatives and ministries of agriculture staff involved in extension service programmes and agriculture resilience initiatives.
The workshop will be led by facilitators and experts invited or designated by the African Centre of Meteorological Applications for Development (ACMAD), VITO and KENTER.
The workshop will be run as physical event and will consist of sessions on three consecutive days. The first session will include opening ceremony and the purpose/expectations from the training as well as presentations on the status of and gaps on climate services for the agriculture sector in Africa. The last session will include recommendations and conclusions on the future development and use of CLIMTAG and closing ceremony. Each Lecture session will commence with an introductory presentation of the session by ACMAD and VITO, presentations by facilitators and experts on datasets, methods, tools, products, actionable indices for the agriculture calendar update and adaptation options. Total working period is 3 days.