Use of the digital agromet advisory dashboard and climate services

About the training

In collaboration with the Agriculture Knowledge Centre (AKC) and FORWARD Nepal in Chitwan, we are organizing a two-day training for staff from AKC Chitwan, technical project staff and agriculture extension officers of relevant palikas (rural and urban municipalities) in Chitwan district. The training will focus on the operational use of the digital agromet advisory dashboard co-developed by AKC Chitwan and ICIMOD and the integration of climate information in agromet advisories.

Objectives

• Present the components of the digital agromet advisory dashboard
• Use and test the mobile application for field-data collection
• Introduce climate services and its linkage to the agromet advisory dashboard
• Discussion on the development of an agromet advisory bulletin

Background

ICIMOD’s Climate Services Initiative is implementing a pilot project on localizing climate services in Chitwan, Nepal, primarily focusing on two sectors – agriculture and tourism. Funded through UK Aid, the pilot will be implemented over a two-year period ending in March 2022. The pilot aims to improve livelihoods and enhance resilience of people in the agriculture and tourism sectors through reduced risks and vulnerabilities with the use of climate information services. The targeted outcome is improved capacity of local institutions in Chitwan to integrate climate information services in their decision making and having in place a user driven climate service information system and user interface platform.

Building on earlier efforts at strengthening agromet advisories in Nepal, we are collaborating with AKC Chitwan to further enrich agromet advisories, make them more relevant to famers’ needs and deliver them in a timely manner. At the local level, FORWARD Nepal is implementing the pilot with technical support from ICIMOD and AKC Chitwan to improve the capacity of local institutions, extension workers and farmers in Chitwan district to integrate climate information services in their decision making.

As capacity building is an important component of our pilot project, we plan to organize training at two levels; the first level is for the AKC, agriculture extension officers of relevant palikas and technical project staff.