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Weather and Climate Information: For Agricultural Production and Food Security

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Simon Gathara Ministry of Environment and Mineral Resources Kenya Meteorological Department Agrometeorological Division Introduction Kenya Meteorological Department ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Weather and Climate Information: For Agricultural Production and Food Security


1
Weather and Climate InformationFor
Agricultural Production and Food Security
  • Simon Gathara
  • Ministry of Environment and Mineral Resources
  • Kenya Meteorological Department
    Agrometeorological Division

2
Introduction
  • Kenya Meteorological Department (KMD) operates
    the following observing stations
  • 37 Synoptic stations ( 24 Hrs manned by KMD)
  • 14 Agrometeorological stations (8 hrs manned by
    KMD and some by other institutions
  • 24 Automatic Weather Stations (12 more soon)
  • 1,000 Rainfall stations (manned by volunteers)
  • Temperature stations (manned by volunteers)

3
NETWORK OF AGROMETEOROLOGICAL STATIONS
4
Introduction ------Contd
  • In synoptic stations data observed include
  • Rainfall
  • Temperature
  • Relative Humidity
  • Wind Speed and Direction
  • Sunshine hours
  • Radiation
  • Pressure

5
Data observed on crops at the Agro-meteorological
stations
  • Variety of the grown crop
  • Stage of development attained by the crop
  • General assessment of crop performance
  • Damage by pests, diseases and adverse weather
  • State of weeding in the farm
  • Plant density
  • Soil moisture

6
Types of Forecasts
  • KMD makes forecasts on the following time scales
  • Daily
  • 4 day
  • 7 day
  • 10 day
  • Monthly
  • Seasonal
  • In all these cases efforts are made to monitor
    the socio economic impacts of the expected
    weather on various sectors.

7
Agrometeorological Products Services
  • Products include
  • 10- Day Crop and Weather Review (Dekadal
    Bulletin).
  • Monthly Agrometeorological Bulletin (Advisories
    on Impacts on Agriculture and Livestock
    Production).
  • Seasonal bulletins. These give advisories on
    start and end of particular rainy season hence
    length of growing seasons.
  • Tailor made products as specified by the user.
  • Advisory Services include
  • Advisories on the rainfall distribution of
    specified areas
  • Advisories on risk of planting early or late in
    the season
  • Advisories on adverse effects of weather on
    crops
  • Advisories on influence of weather on outbreak of
    crop pests and diseases
  • Advisory services on harvest and post harvest
    operations
  • Advisories on pastures and general water status
    for livestock and wildlife

8
10- Day Crop Weather Review (Dekadal Bulletin)
  • This bulletin is Published every 10 days and
    distributed to users. The bulletin describes the
    weather of the past 10-days period and its impact
    on crop performance and also gives the weather
    outlook for the coming 10 days and expected
    impacts to agriculture and Livestock production.

9
Monthly Bulletin
  • A monthly bulletin is published once a month and
    it carries information on collected
    meteorological and Agrometeorological data on
    climatic conditions, development of the weather
    and a description of crop performance during the
    month. Description of the development of pasture
    and crop water satisfaction within the month.

10
PHENOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS (emergence)
11
PHENOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS (100 ninth leaf)
12
PHENOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS(65 tasseling)
13
PHENOLOGICALOBSERVATION(100 Full ripeness)
14
APPLICATION OF AGROMETEOROLOGICAL INFORMATION
Left Maize cob Used neither certified seeds nor
Agrometeorological Information Middle Maize
cob Used certified seeds but did not utilize
Agrometeorological Information Right Maize
cob Used both certified seeds and
Agrometeorological Information
15
IMPACTS OF PROLONGED DROUGHT
Drought results in inadequate pasture water for
livestock and wildlife. This often leads to human
and animal conflicts. The pastoral communities
are forced to migrate in search of water and
pastures.
16
Prolonged droughts result in land degradation
exposing the land to wind and water soil erosion.
This leads to soil infertility and
desertification.
17
Severe drought results in death of livestock and
wildlife resulting in loss of livelihood of the
pastoral communities.
18
Severe droughts result in crop failure leading to
food insecurity and warranting food relief
contingencies.
19
Prolonged drought results in lack of adequate
water for domestic use leading to communities
trekking for long distances in search of the
precious commodity.
20
The Role KMD Can Play in Provision of Crop
Climatic Needs
  • KMD has historical data in some stations ranging
    from the late years of 1800s to date.
  • Climatic means (averages) including daily,
    monthly and annuals of all the aforementioned
    parameters have been established and can be made
    available if a user needs to compare current
    values with the long term means
  • Using the long series of rainfall data, mean
    dates of onset and cessation of the rain seasons
    have been established and the dates of earliest
    onset and cessations established. i.e with
    appropriate standard deviations

21
The Role KMD Can Play in Provision of Crop
Climatic Needs
  • KMD is able to give the farmer (user), the risks
    associated with dry/wet spells of given lengths
    if he plants early, at time of onset and late
  • This information is of use to plan whether to
    intercrop.
  • In as far as thermal needs of a crop is
    concerned, KMD is able to provide probabilities
    of given ranges of temperature in order to
    ascertain some harmful events e.g frost and
    during growing period to be able to judge whether
    crops optimum conditions are able to be met if
    the same is being introduced

22
The Role KMD Can Play in Provision of Crop
Climatic Needs
  • Whereas most of KMD forecasts indicate
    terminologies such as above Normal, Below Normal
    and Normal with assistance of the
    Agrometeorological services, the same may be
    quantified for use in yield estimation.
  • KMD has statistical and crop simulation models
    which use meteorological and climatological data
    to monitor crop development.
  • Simple crop specific water balance models are
    currently being used in KMD to monitor crop
    development and to an extent estimate yield.
  • KMDs data being at point value, may not be able
    to provide estimates over large areas, however
    with collaboration areal averaging can be done to
    facilitate such estimates

23
Conclusions
  • KMD assists agricultural activities through
    provision of seasonal weather forecasts with
    long lead times in order that farmers can plan in
    advance
  • Tailored information of events within the season
    can also be made available
  • There is need for collaborative approach in the
    provision of meteorological products
  • Though the KMD Network of stations is sparse, the
    gaps can be filled through remote sensing
  • From point values, Crop-weather models can form a
    compliment in crop monitoring and early Warning
  • Met dept has a sustained effort to provide marine
    and oceanography information and Fisheries Dept
    can be able to access this information for
    planning.

24
THANK YOU
  • HAVE A GOOD DAY
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