Agrometeorological services for smallholder farmers in West Africa
Climate variability and change are recognised as a major threat for West African agriculture, particularly for smallholder farmers. Moreover, population pressure, poverty, and food insecurity, are worsening the vulnerability of production systems to climate risks. Application of Climate Services...
Main Authors: | , , , , |
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Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2018-04-01
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Series: | Advances in Science and Research |
Online Access: | https://www.adv-sci-res.net/15/15/2018/asr-15-15-2018.pdf |
Summary: | Climate variability and change are recognised as a major threat for West
African agriculture, particularly for smallholder farmers. Moreover,
population pressure, poverty, and food insecurity, are worsening the
vulnerability of production systems to climate risks. Application of Climate
Services in agriculture, specifically Agrometeorological Services, is
acknowledged as a valuable innovation to assist decision-making and develop
farmers' specific adaptive capacities. In West Africa, the World
Meteorological Organisation and National Meteorological Services deployed
considerable efforts in the development of Agrometeorological Services.
Nevertheless, the impacts of such services on West African farming
communities are still largely unknown. This paper aims to delineate the
added value of agrometeorological services for farmers within the
Agriculture Innovation System of Mauritania. The results of this
quali-quantitative assessment demonstrate that farmers use
agrometeorological information for a variety of choices: making strategic
choice on the seed variety and on the geographical distribution of plots,
choosing the most appropriate planting date, better tuning crop development
cycle with the rhythm of the rains and choosing favourable periods for
different cultural operations.
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Globally, the effects of all these good practices can be summarized by an
increase of crops productivity and a decrease of cropping costs (including
opportunity cost) in terms of inputs and working time. |
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ISSN: | 1992-0628 1992-0636 |