This document discusses how improved access to climate and weather information can help farmers adapt to climate change. It provides an example of a World Bank project that developed agroweather decision support systems in Kenya and Ethiopia. The project uses ICT tools like SMS, smartphones, and radio to disseminate seasonal forecasts, advisories, and early warnings to farmers. It aims to increase farmers' adaptive capacity by helping them make more informed management decisions about planting, fertilizing, and choosing crops. The document also outlines challenges to accessing weather data and how ICT can help address issues of data availability, usability, and timeliness to provide localized information for farmers' micro-environments.

1. Agroweather Tools for
Adapting to Climate
Change
The World Bank Group
Agriculture & Environmental Services
Bank Netherlands Partnership Program

2. Some 870 million people are chronically undernourished. Over
2 billion suffer from micronutrient deficiencies, and 3 million chil-
dren die from undernutrition annually. The effects of climate
change add to the challenge of producing enough food for the
growing population. Climate change is worsening already tight re-
source constraints through more extreme and variable weather and
decreasing average yields. Major weather and food price shocks
have become the new norm. Recent droughts in the horn of Africa,
Russia, Australia, and United States have had devastating effects on
crop yields and livestock production, affecting food prices and in-
creasing the vulnerability of the poor. As we seek to feed nine bil-
lion people, globally, by 2050, climate change will continue to pre-
sent further complications to millions of people for whom achiev-
ing food security is already problematic.
Feeding the growing population in the coming years will re-
quire ingenuity and innovation to produce more food on less
land in more sustainable ways. One of the fundamental ways to
help farmers increase productivity, cope with climate-related stress-
es and adapt their farming systems to unpredictable weather is
through improved access to climate and weather information. This
information will enable farmers to make more informed decisions
about which crops to plant and when, and pastoralists when and
where to graze herds.
Managing climate variability is fundamental to a long-term
strategy for adapting agriculture to climate change. Achieving
growth among smallholder farmers has always required access to
timely, cost-effective, and personally relevant information on im-
proved practices, markets, prices, inputs, weather―and news of im-
pending disasters. Integrating information on climate into planning
for adaptation and sustainable agriculture will entail a number of
elements.
 The use of modern tools for climate data sourcing and analysis,
including automatic meteorological measurements and satellite
data products on a near real-time basis;
Agroweather Tools for Adapting to Climate Change
Forecasts can be very targeted geographically by linking mobile
phone numbers to local telecommunication towers. Interactive
voice response (IVR) systems, that dynamically render weather
conditions into human speech using pre-recorded sentences in
native dialects and accents, are incorporated.
Through Smartphones, forecasts and advice can be complemented
by visuals. Smartphones are also a good platform for survey tools
to capture farmer needs and feedback. Radio messages disseminate
weather forecasts as well as more qualitative information related to
planning for weather events for which the long format is more
suitable than short text messages. Phase 4 of the project encom-
passes stakeholder training workshops to strengthen capacity
and encourage the use of the agroweather tools.

3. A WORLD BANK PROJECT EXAMPLE: AGROWEATHER
DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS FOR KENYA AND
ETHIOPIA
The main objective of this project is to increase the adaptive capacity
of farming communities by improving access to information on
weather forecasting and climate patterns. This improves farm man-
agement capabilities under conditions of climate risk. An innovative
Decision Support System (DSS) for managing climate risks for major
crops is implemented in pilot areas. The geo-referenced DSS is pro-
grammed to enable use by computers and smart phones. It incorpo-
rates crop simulation models to understand and demonstrate impacts
of climate variability and crop management practices on crop yields.
Through advanced seasonal weather forecasting, the DSS informs
better agronomic management practices -planting dates, fertilization,
irrigation, weed control, pesticide use, and choice of crops and varie-
ties. Dissemination platforms include Voice Interactive Systems and
SMS.
This project is carried out in four phases. Phase 1 involves stake-
holder analysis that assesses climate information needs, gaps, and
existing use of weather and climate information for agricultural deci-
sion making. Phase 2 entails database development, and crop
simulation modeling linked to climate information that enables the
determination of field-specific climate-smart management practices,
and a data output system that generates climate-smart agronomic
options. Phase 3 involves the delivery of climate-smart advisory
information using ICTs such as SMS and smart phone applica-
tions, and more conventional media such as radio messages. SMS
through mobile phones is the simplest and most cost effective tech-
nology with which to deliver information.
 Analysis of climate risks and assessment of climate impacts using
crop–weather interactions;
 The application of economic models, optimization approaches
and risk perception by farmers and land users;
 The formulation of highly practical advice that famers can apply
directly to their operations; and
 Access to modern information and communication technologies.
All of these elements provide knowledge on the full range of crops
and varieties to , needed inputs, and practices to execute timely man-
agement decisions.

4. CHALLENGES TO ACCESSING WEATHER INFOR-
MATION AND THE ROLE OF ICT
Adequate weather information needs to be specifically tailored to
the micro-environment of the farmer. It is also extremely time-
sensitive, especially the short term forecasts that help farmers make
day-to-day decisions. The effective utilization of climate information
to identify adaptation strategies and support adaptation planning in
agriculture has been impeded by:
 Challenges in matching decision-making needs to the
available information. Climate information is not sole-
sourced, but is generated in a broad range of formats and at var-
ious scales (for length of time and spatial coverage). Decision
makers cannot always get the information they need when they
need it, or information that is directly relevant to their opera-
tions.
 Challenges in applying and interpreting climate infor-
mation related to: a) ease of access, b) data complexity and in-
frastructural impediments to their use, c) deficiency of long-
term weather and climate records, as well as d) unidentified
and/or large uncertainties in existing data.
The growing affordability of mobile phones, spread of connec-
tivity, and advances in data storage and open access have made infor-
mation and communication technologies (ICT) increasingly useful to
agriculturists worldwide. ICT can facilitate the collection of micro-
level weather data by providing trained local intermediaries with sim-
ple weather measurement tools. They can then communicate the
data they collect for analysis via SMS. Text surveys with simple yes/no
responses or longer surveys completed through an intermediary on a
smartphone platform can be used to customize information to be
relevant for specific micro-climate areas and the challenges farmers
are facing based on their crops, livestock or farming practices.
ICT tools can be used to disseminate weather information to inform
agricultural decision-making in a cost-effective way. The high level of
granularity and timeliness of this information marks a major ad-
vantage of modern ICT over more traditional means of disseminat-
ing information. Some of the most common uses of ICT for dissem-
inating agro-meteorological information include transmitting season-
al or daily weather forecasts, and generating warnings and alerts for
disasters and extreme weather events.
Agroweather Tools for Adapting to Climate Change