AfriCultuReS - S7: WEATHER SERVICE

Categories: Crop Monitoring, Water Consumption, Flood Monitoring

In the short term, weather factors produce food production shortages and what is more, extreme weather events in a climate changing environment produce extreme shortages. Overall, at global scale, the estimation is that food shortages will become three times more likely as a result of climate change by 2050. In view of this scenario short term weather forecast is required for making urgent decisions. A part of this, day-to-day farm management requires weather information for the schedule of farming practices, for example, the application of fertilizers requires some water in the upper to mid layers of the soil, the spaying must be done in non-windy days, etc. Weather conditions are also a key driver for the outbreak of pests and diseases, like fungal diseases, knowing in advance the likelihood of these events can support early decision making towards’ at least, the mitigation of the adverse effects of weather on food production.