Tailored climate services as part of adaptation package for smallholder

farmers in semi-arid regions of Zimbabwe

Leonard S. Unganai (Ph.D) and Sheila

Mlambo Oxfam, Harare, Zimbabwe

Lunganai@oxfam.co.uk

Outline of presentation

• Background

• Approach

• Tailored weather services

• Conclusions

Background

• The UNDP/GEF supported SCCF2 project is being implemented in 3 districts in support of GoZ by Oxfam in partnership with Plan International, SAFIRE, UZ for the benefit of 10,100 hhds

• The project goal is to reduce the vulnerability of smallholder farmers to impacts of climate change including extreme events. (2014 – 2018)

• Project uses a three pronged strategy:

Project Sites

Project Strategy

• Diversify and strengthen livelihoods and sources of income for vulnerable smallholder farmers in targeted area,

• Increase knowledge and understanding of climate variability and change induced risks in targeted areas,

• Strengthen integrated planning and budget systems at local and national levels

Climate profile of project area

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Time series of area averaged mean annual rainfall and PET for AER V, Zimbabwe

Rainfall range: 225 to 720 mm

Observed climate trends and impacts

• Temperatures have become much hotter

• Drought incidence and severity has increased

• Rainfall is less consistent in time and space, more variable

• Predictability of rainfall has gone down

• Length of crop growing period has shortened

• Smallholder farmers and rural communities have become increasingly food insecure

• Livestock in rural communities travel longer distances in search of fodder and water

What weather/climate products do smallholder farmers want?

• Three Climate User Interface platforms were established at community level in the three districts to answer the question on product needs.

• Innovators interacted with the farmers over a period of time to have an appreciation of the climate related issues faced and co-designed solutions at four levels.

• Observations/monitoring; prediction; agric advisories; & dissemination

Framework for improving climate services for smallholder farmers

Source: Tall (2013)

Findings from CUIPs • Observations:

- many key areas in project area poorly observed.

- Data transmission from volunteers including extension to MSD slow, inefficient or non-existent

• Solution: Near realtime data dissemination system that is inexpensive

Findings cont’d

• Forecast products (problem): too generalised, difficult to use (not actionable).

• Solution: Downscale to local scale; improve reliability

Large grid-point spacing – say 90 km

30 km

10 km

Findings – packaging & communication

• There are a number of meteorological terms smallholder farmers don’t understand, such as:

• Stating rainfall amount, eg. 20 mm or temperature, eg. 27°C.

• Language used has to be understood by the targeted farmers

Tailored Solution

What has the project done so far?

• Invested in improving meteorological observation network. A rainguage in every ward where the project is present and 2 AWSs.

• Defined the farmers weather and climate services requirements through CUIPs

• Co-designed and developed an end-to-end ICT based climate information dissemination system.

• Downscaled weather forecast products for the targeted districts.

• Co-designed actionable weather advisories.

Local rainfall observation

Automatic Weather Stations sites

Downscaled weather forecasts for Chiredzi

From Met product to actionable advisory for the farmer

• English: MSD predicts heavy rain in the next 4 days. Agritex encourages you to postpone fertilizer application as it may be leached or washed away.

Dissemination system – Feature phone & ICT based

Frontline SMS

• FrontlineSMS is an open source desktop sms technology that enables instantaneous two-way communication to any mobile handset.

It was created to lower barriers to positive social change using mobile technology by leveraging basic tools already available to most organizations, including those in ‘last-mile’ settings — computers and low-cost modems

Typical farmer decisions following a seasonal rainfall forecast

Source: Unganai et al. (2013)

Conclusions

• Semi-arid regions such as the SCCF2 project areas are in a fragile agro-ecosystem hence no single intervention can resolve the challenges. A package of adaptation measures including tailored climate services is required.

• Sustainably providing actionable tailored weather/climate services to smallholder farmers requires a partnership approach – climate experts, extension, researchers, farmers.

• The quality of the products in terms of relevance, reliability, timeliness, affordability, trustworthiness have to be such that users should be willing to pay for the product/service.

• NMSs have to continue investing in modern technology and HR capacity to meet the complex needs today’s society.

Thank You