The changing rainfall pattern has undermined the ability of the farmers to rely on their indigenous knowledge for farm decisions such as when to plant, what crop to plant, when to fertilize and when to irrigate, among others. The climate information, especially through climate forecast is deemed necessary support to farm level decisions at these times. The challenge raised is how to bring this climate information down to the farmer level. In addition to this is the issue of how to translate the information as extension advisory.
This paper discusses the climate information system (CIS) by identifying the suppliers of information, their pathways to the farm level, the various actors that provide extension advisories and how these are ultimately disseminated to the municipal agricultural offices and the farmers. Data were taken from secondary sources and from data base generated by the AMIA 2 CIS project. Ways to sustain the various CIS projects are also suggested.
Results show that challenges to the sustained provisioning of CIS and the corresponding extension advisory include: 1) standards in the establishment and maintenance of the CIS equipment; 2) coping with global modern technologies; 3) meeting human capital requirements; 4) need for a paradigm shift within the DA and the LGUs in order to mainstream the climate forecast and extension advisories in the day to day activities; and 5) commitment of partners to institutionalize collaboration among the providers and the users of CIS.
Policy recommendations to sustain CIS initiatives are as follows: 1) come up with a protocol in the establishment and maintenance of the CIS equipment; 2) invest on modern technologies for climate data collection; 3) harmonize available climate projection models; 4) build human capital to sustain the CIS; 5) mainstream the climate forecast and extension advisories as functions of the DA, LGUs and SUCs; and 6) institutionalize CIS partnerships and collaborations.
