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Training of Trainers on Weather and Climate Information and Products for

Agricultural Extension Services in Ethiopia

Robert Stefanski – WMOTsegaye Ketema – National Meteorological Agency, Ethiopia (NMAE)

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Outline

• Introduction• Agriculture in Ethiopia• Weather Products• Project Background• Project Objectives• Planned Activities• Expected Outcomes

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Introduction

• Weather and climate: biggest risk factors impacting farming especially for developing and least developed countries (small scale and subsistence farming).

• Extreme weather and climate events impede sustainable farming development

• Climate variability and change contribute to vulnerability of individual farms and rural communities which significantly impacts on local and regional food security.

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Introduction 2

• Recent weather and climate initiatives demonstrated the importance and value of targeted weather forecasting and climate predictions in increasing preparedness of farmers and farm business managers, leading to better outcomes.

• Experiences in Ethiopia and Mali

• Roving Seminars on Weather, Climate and Farmers

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Rationale

Results from Mali: Farmers taking management decisions with andwithout agromet information, 2003/04 - “Agriculture in Mali” in Climate Risk Management in Africa (IRI, 2007)

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Agriculture in Ethiopia

• Ethiopia has great agricultural potential due to vast areas of fertile land, diverse climate, generally adequate rainfall, and large labor pool.

• Agriculture is most important economic sector accounting for over 40 percent of GDP, 80 percent of exports, and occupies 80 percent of the labor force.

• 75% of Ethiopia’s 74 million people dependent on agriculture, mostly rainfed and small scale

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Agriculture in Ethiopia - 2• Principal crops include coffee, pulses (e.g., beans),

oilseeds, cereals, potatoes, sugarcane, and vegetables.• Exports mostly agricultural commodities, coffee largest

foreign exchange earner. • Ethiopia is Africa's second biggest maize producer.• Ethiopia's livestock population one of the largest in Africa• In 2006/2007 livestock accounted for 10.6% of export

income, leather and leather products making up 7.5%

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Rationale

Rainfall and GDP in Ethiopia. Source: World Bank (2006).

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Agriculture in Ethiopia - 3• Ethiopian agriculture has been affected by drought which

has persistently affected the country since early 1970s, resulting in low productivity, weak farming infrastructure with a low level of technology.

• Weather and climate are some of the biggest risk factors impacting on farming performance and management in Ethiopia.

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Weather Products by NMAE

• Data collected more than 200 weather stations across Ethiopia

• Produces daily weather reports, 10-day weather summaries and 10-day forecasts, monthly weather summaries and 1-month forecasts, and three seasonal forecasts a year covering the two rainy seasons and the dry season.

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Extension Services

• Agricultural extension personnel play an important intermediary role between developers of agro-meteorological products (national weather services, universities, research institutes) and farmers.

• There is insufficient education and training of the user community, including the farm advisory services that provide specific agricultural advice from general weather information.

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Project Background

• Agromet Roving Seminar on the Application of Agro-Meteorology - 16 to 17 May 2007 in Mekelle, Ethiopia.

• Collaboration between the WMO and the National Meteorological Agency of Ethiopia (NMA)

• How to deliver practical uses and knowledge of agro-meteorological applications to increase agricultural production, and to training agricultural extension agents and agricultural experts in providing better agro-meteorological services to farmers.

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Project Background - 2• Share successful experience and major lessons of the

Mali agromet pilot project with support of WMO and NMA, including sessions with the participants on how agro-meteorological service can directly reach farmers.

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Project

• Project proposal developed by WMO with input fromNMAE and submitted to Rockefeller Forundation

• Grant was approved in December 2009 • 323,000 USD for two years• Project Management - WMO• First Consultation meeting in March 2010• Funds transfered in June 2010

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Project Objective

• To support the National Meteorological Agency of Ethiopia (NMAE) to engage with and provide training to agricultural extension agents and agricultural experts.

• To assist them to provide better practical knowledge of agro-meteorological services and applications to farmers in order to improve farming practices and increase or secure agricultural production.

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Project Overview

• 26,000 agricultural development agents (DAs) and about 600 administrative districts in Ethiopia. Cannot train all extension agents.

• Adopt a “Training of Trainers” approach by training 30 extension agents in each of ten regions in Ethiopia as a starting point.

• Farming community will be engaged to more effectively establish the link between available information and actual information needs.

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Planned Activities

• Consultations between WMO, the NMAE and the Agricultural Extension Service (March 2010 - done)

• Institutionalizing Relationship between NMAE and Ag Extension

– Weather, Climate and Food Security Working Group (NMAE, Ministry of Agriculture and other key stakeholders)

– Establishment of a new staff position within NMAE and Ministry of Agriculture

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Planned Activities - 2

• Training of Trainers (Ag. Extension Workers)– Series of Induction Training Seminars for Agricultural

Extension Workers (30 from each of 10 districts) will be carried out

– To familiarize them with climate and weather issues related to agriculture and how information can be passed onto farmers and applied to farming practices. as district-wise departmental meetings.

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Planned Activities - 3

• Roving Seminars in different agro-climatic regions– Seminars held in selected districts, bringing together

Agricultural Extension Workers with local farmers to give the Extension Officers “hands on experience” in transferring Weather and Climate Information to the community

– Obtain input and feedback from the farming community – Distribution of Rain Gauges and Training of Farmers

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Planned Activities - 4

• Post Evaluation in a sample of the villages – Surveys of village leaders and extension officers in

representative villages– Capture lessons learned for improvement of training – Collection of yield data from villages/households that

received and did not receive training

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Planned Activities - 5

• Meeting with other RF Grantees• Exploration of other delivery channels for climate

information (SMS, local radio, etc)• Partners and Links to other projects

– Agricultural Research, Rural Extension Service, World Food Programme, AGRA, RCOFs, Oxfam America and other relevant government and civil society stakeholders.

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Expected Outcomes

• Institutionalize links between agricultural extension sector and NMAE for provision of weather and climate information services to farming community.

• By project end, mechanism in place to provide routine weather and climate information to agricultural extension sector and obtain regular feedback to NMAE.

• Raise awareness of agricultural extension services about current provision of weather and climate information for operational decisions in farming.

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Expected Outcomes

• Feedback obtained from agricultural extension services will help NMAE to design improved products for farmers and improve communication to the farmers.

• Summary reports will help improve current practices for weather and climate risk management in different parts of Ethiopia and support development of improved risk management guidance tools for farming community.

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