Third West and Central Africa Agricultural Science Week CORAF METEOROLOGICAL AND INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE- BASED FORECASTS FOR REDUCING POOR POPULATIONS VULNERABILITY TO CLIMATE CHANGE AND VARIABILITY Fréjus THOTO N’Djamena, May 2012

Plan  Introduction (challenges & objectives)  Agro-meteo info system  Mainstreaming indigenous knowledge  Results & Impacts  Conclusions 1/22/2016 F.T, Ndjamena-May 2012

Introduction (1/3)  Climate change and variability impacts are evident (IPCC, 2007)  Sub-saharan africa appears to be one of the most vulnerable zone in the world (Tornton et al., 2008)  Benin is experiencing considerable challenges attributed to climate change (floods, drougth, crops loss, etc.) (MEPN, 2002) 1/22/2016 F.T, Ndjamena-May 2012

Introduction (2/3)  Benin agriculture contributes up to 36% to GDP (SCRP, 2007) but is mainly rainfed  Therefore agriculture is highly dependent on climate that is changing (sensitive modification in seasons)  Urgent need : Setting up a climate information system providing agro- meteo info and tailored advices to farmers 1/22/2016 F.T, Ndjamena-May 2012

Introduction (3/3)  Then the IDRC-funded project « PARBCC » has been implemented to do so.  Objective: Provide farmers with useful climate forecasts and derived advices for farm and climate risks management  Location: Benin (35 municipalities) 1/22/2016 F.T, Ndjamena-May 2012

AgMI System 1/22/2016

Mainstreaming indigenous knowledge  Groups surveyed: traditional leaders, farmers communities, very experienced producers and senior citizens who have knowledge and have experienced several weather events or climate risks since the 1940s.  Several natural indicators: moon and constellation movement, tree species and birds 1/22/2016 F.T, Ndjamena-May 2012

Mainstreaming indigenous knowledge  Some examples  Star clusters to the East in May  Heavy rains between 25 th Jan & 5 th Feb  Appearance of Erythrina senegalensis red flowers in August or September 1/22/2016 F.T, Ndjamena-May 2012 Good rainy season coming end of rainy season is close

Mainstreaming indigenous knowledge  High frequency of tucan songs between Feb. and Mar.  Coming of bulbucus ibis in villages 1/22/2016 Rainy season is close Beginning of dry season Such indigenous knowledge is integrated in the analysis of scientific bulletin produced by the national committee

Results and impacts (1/3)  Knowledge generated  Early warning and agro-meteorological information system setting up methodology that is quite innovative in Benin  Use of weather data (primarily used for aerial navigation ) for adaptation to CC  Possibility to integrate indigenous knowledge with scientific forecasts 1/22/2016 F.T, Ndjamena-May 2012

Results and impacts (2/3)  Impacts on food security  Anticipating the harvest of mature crops to reduce the risk of flash flooding or delay the installation of crops usually sown in flood zones, limit losses due to excess rainfall;  Taking into account new crop calendars proposed by the project has to have better yields.  Sowing at good date might help farmers to avoid drought pockets, early cessation of rains and excessive rains 1/22/2016 F.T, Ndjamena-May 2012

Results and impacts (3/3)  Impacts on food security  92% of farmers who receive agricultural information are convinced of their relevance and then plan their activities on them  66% of these producers are willing to pay to receive such tailored agricultural information  Higher yields and higher incomes (10% to 80%) than do farmers not having access to climate info. 1/22/2016 F.T, Ndjamena-May 2012

Conclusions  Providing climate prediction info to farmers is a promising measure for climate change adaptation in rainfed-agriculture context  This experience has shown that indigenous knowledge on climate are very useful for scientific climate forecasting to make them more accurate and more useful to farmers 1/22/2016 F.T, Ndjamena-May 2012

1/22/2016 F.T, Ndjamena-May 2012 THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION