Agro-Weather Tool for Climate Smart Agriculture

A promising practice on the use of ICTs in weather-data for farmers

Many small holder farmers in developing countries have faced huge challenges as a result of climate change induced weather effects. Most of these farmers rely on traditional methods to understand weather predictions.

Localised weather data is essential for farm based decisions such as when to plant, yet farmers can access reliable and usable weather data. If such information is available, the quality is poor or it’s inaccessible to the communities that need it most.

In order to support Kenyan farmers, the Kenyan Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KARLO) developed the Agro-Weather Tool. The Agro-Weather Tool is a web and mobile based information system that incorporates climate information and good agricultural practices for farmers.

In Kenya, as it is true in most developing countries, there are weak systems that integrate weather data with findings from agricultural research. The KARLO Knowledge Hub platform and mobile applications have been central in facilitating access to and flow of agricultural research information and knowledge.

Together with stakeholders KARLO developed the Agro-Weather Tool, which generates location specific information based on the forecast information and data provided. Armed with this data, researchers process this data and generate advisories that are disseminated to the farmers through the short messaging systems (SMS) technology, web-based portals and interactive voice response system.

How are farmers using this tool? What technology supports the Agro-Weather Tool? What were the lessons learnt? These answers and many more are provided in the recently published promising practice on Agro-Weather Tool.

Download and read the document here