Climate Information Services: from Tomorrow’s Weather to Next Year’s Harvest

A second challenge is how to reach a common understanding of how reliable climate predictions can be, as the development of climate information services depends almost entirely on predictions.

While predictions are often imperfect, in most cases predicted trends – based on past data – are a fairly good indication of the future, and therefore, very useful.

Generally, it’s better to have some imperfect information than no information at all, in the same way that blurry vision is preferable to being totally blind. 

5) How are services changing with access to digital and mobile technology?  

Increasing access to digital technology – primarily through smartphones – makes it easier and faster to reach more people, and offer more varied content. Digital technologies also offer us the opportunity to bundle support: A good example would be the bundling of climate and financial services for farmers who are looking for a small loan; climate information services and technical farming advisory could be offered by the lender as a mechanism to maximize loan repayment, creating a win-win situation.  

However, digitalization can also create complications. The spread of climate information services from various sources can create confusion, especially if these sources contradict each other. To make sure farmers receive the most accurate information possible, we need to manage digitalization, especially taking into account gender and cultural biases, and changes in power relationships. 

6) What is unique about CGIAR’s work on climate services?  

CGIAR’s research teams have over 10 years of experience in implementing climate services in low- and middle-income countries, and we’ve developed great innovations for vulnerable communities in these countries. What we do best is the brokering of partnerships and bringing together stakeholders from multiple disciplines to solve problems.

We gave some good examples of CGIAR climate information services from a former research program on climate change, agriculture, and food security (CCAFS) in Senegal and Colombia, where we transformed both how risk was managed, and how Senegalese institutions worked together to support farmers in managing risks. Similarly, at the Alliance we have examples of our climate services innovations working at scale in 20 countries across Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia.

Through these services we are reaching millions of farmers, offering context-appropriate and actionable climate information for their decision making and agricultural planning. 

8) What questions do you ask farmers to understand their context and co-develop useful services? 

We ask many questions! The most important question is probably about their perception of weather and climate: it is crucial to first understand how farmers experience climate and its effects. Next, we need to know whether and how they currently plan their farming activities to adapt to climatic conditions. In this process, we may learn about crops they grow, specific practices they employ, and information they use for decision making. It is only when we have a common understanding of what their farms look like, what impacts they perceive, and what decisions are most important that we start discussing what information may be most useful to them. In many cases, co-design means that we need to combine farmers’ traditional knowledge with our own scientific knowledge and experience.