Boosting Climate Smart Agriculture in Andean Region – The Climandes Project
'Climandes' – user-tailored climate services to support decision-making has, since 2012, supported agriculture-dependent households in Peru's Andean mountains to obtain access to much-needed climate information.
A multi-stakeholder project carried out by the two national meteorological services, SENAMHI - Peru’s Meteorology Agency, and MeteoSwiss, Climandes is being implemented under the Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS) spearheaded by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and is funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).
Climandes assesses user-needs for climate services in agriculture, the primary source of income for populations in the region. An extensive household survey of more than 700 smallholder farmers conducted within Climandes in late 2016, revealed that farmers who received an early warning about upcoming weather events showed lower vulnerability than their counterparts. Climandes provides improved information on precipitation and droughts to inform smallholders on water availability for agricultural production.
In 2017, Climandes was awarded the annual Swiss Forum for International Agricultural Research (SFIR) prize.
Slated to end in 2018, the project will now emphasise improving climate services to the users’ needs and will disseminate findings to support other countries facing similar challenges in the region.
More information on the Climandes project click here.