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Managing Weather and Climate Risks in Agriculture pp 171–190Cite as

Complying with farmers’ conditions and needs using new weather and climate information approaches and technologies

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Abstract

The preparatory note of this Workshop (WMO/CAgM 2005) gives six specific objectives of the Workshop. Others will deal with identification and assessment of the components of farmers’ agrometeorological coping strategies with risks and uncerainties, discuss the major challenges to these coping strategies (e.g. Rathore and Stigter 2007), review the opportunities that farmers have, to cope with agrometeorological risks and uncertainties, and provide examples. In this paper we particularly discuss and recommend suitable policy and policy support options to comply with farmers’ conditions and needs that determine their vulnerabilities as well as their windows of opportunity. This includes the role of weather and climate information approaches and information technologies and whether new approaches and technologies have roles to play. If this is the case we should find out what determines the scope of the application of such developments. We belong to the schools that want to make a plea for achieving a “culture of disaster preparedness” (e.g. Sikka 2001; Rathore and Stigter 2007) and we feel that the term “risk management” should be abandoned for all but the richest farmers (Sahni and Ariyabandu 2003). The key-word in preparedness is not “management” but “resilience” (e.g. Reijntjes 2001; Björnsen and Gurung 2001). An analysis of farmers’ agroecological resistance to drought in Africa and to hurricanes/cyclones in Central America and India indicated independently that resilience has a social as well as a technical dimension (ILEIA 2000; Holt-Gimenez 2001; Stigter et al. 2003).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Agromet Vision and INSAM, Groenestraat 13, 5314 AJ, Bruchem, The Netherlands

    C. J. Stigter

  2. Jl. Diponegoro 166, 68214, Bondowoso, Indonesia

    C. J. Stigter

  3. College of Humanity and Development, Department of Media and Communication, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China

    Tan Ying

  4. Agrimet Division, India Meteorological Department, Shivajinagar, Pune 5, India

    H. P. Das

  5. Department of Agricultural Meteorology College of Resources and Environment, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China

    Zheng Dawei

  6. Meteorological Centre of Camagöey Province, Camagöey, Cuba

    R. E. Rivero Vega

  7. Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Agrometeorological Research Centre, 5/62 Nguyen Chi Thanh Street Dong Da District, Hanoi, Viet Nam

    Nguyen Van Viet

  8. Faculty of Agriculture, Sinnar University, Abu Naama, Sinnar, Sudan

    N. I. Bakheit

  9. National Agricultural Extension and Rural Living Services, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria

    Y. M. Abdullahi

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  1. C. J. Stigter
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  2. Tan Ying
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  3. H. P. Das
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  4. Zheng Dawei
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  6. Nguyen Van Viet
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  7. N. I. Bakheit
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  8. Y. M. Abdullahi
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Agricultural Meteorology Division, World Meteorological Organization, 7bis, Avenue de la Paix, 1211, Geneva 2, Switzerland

    Mannava V. K. Sivakumar

  2. USDA/OCE/WAOB, 1400 Independence Ave. SW Room 5133, Washington D.C., 20250, USA

    Raymond P. Motha

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Stigter, C.J. et al. (2007). Complying with farmers’ conditions and needs using new weather and climate information approaches and technologies. In: Sivakumar, M.V.K., Motha, R.P. (eds) Managing Weather and Climate Risks in Agriculture. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-72746-0_11

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