MAINSTREAMING CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION IN AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION
SLIDE 27 – LOOKING AT EL NINO AND LA NINA YEARS
- So in Makoholi, knowing whether it is going to be an El Nino, La Nina or
Normal season is likely to be very useful to farmers
- One could say that based on this information that in the area near to
Makoholi:
o if it is going to be an El Nino season then it is likely to be a drier
season than in a normal or La Nina season
o if it is going to be a La Nina season then we can expect it to be
as wet as a „normal‟ year and possibly wetter
o AND if it is neither El Nino or La Nina, then it probably won‟t be
an extreme year
SLIDE 28 - PLAN FOR HOW AN EXTENSION WORKER COULD WORK
WITH A GROUP OF FARMERS USING CLIMATE INFORMATION
Ask participants to look again and see where on the plan the forecast for
whether it is going to be an El Nino / La Nina / Normal season is available. Ask
how this simple forecast could be communicated to AEWs and farmers IN A
WAY THAT IS NOT GOING TO RISK THERE BEING DELAYS
Perhaps by cell phone text direct from head office or from the met department?
SLIDE 29 - RECAP. OUR AIM WAS – TO HELP FARMERS WITH PLANNING
AND DECISIONS, BY PROVIDING INFORMATION THEY WOULD LIKE
In the sessions we covered:
– What is meant by probability (or risk)?
– What would farmers like to know the probabilities of?
– Ways of working out and communicating probabilities with
farmers
– How we can add value to the Seasonal Climate Forecast and
forecasts of El Nino and La Nina years
We will return to this plan again later in the course.
Later in the course we will be looking at how to practically do this with farmers
and then actually trying some on the field day.
A Training Manual on Use of Climate Information and Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment for
Agricultural Extension Staff in Zimbabwe
Page 60