Weather forecasting
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Authors
Hasan, Syed Mahmud
Issue Date
2017-09
Type
Language
en
Keywords
Agriculture , Climate Change
Alternative Title
Abstract
We are providing localized context specific information to farmers on disease outbreaks and remedies, pesticide management and alternative farming practices throughout the year as well early warning in times of emergency. This has helped to establish the service as a reliable source. We are working in partnership with the Bangladesh Meteorological Department and Department of Agricultural Extension as part of the Zurich project.
An automatic weather station gathers accurate information from the field. We have assembled a team of weather and agricultural experts to analyse the data from these stations and develop localized context specific advisories in their local dialects.These are sent out via voice message to the appropriate locality. This helps to overcome the barrier of illiteracy.
We have been working with entrepreneurs to supply equipment to provide internet services to their communities. They can access flood warning information online and use this to update local weather information boards to alert people to the flood situation. The system is made financially sustainable by enabling entrepreneurs to run their own business using the equipment and internet connection. There are 55 such boards operational in Bangladesh.
Providing accurate and accessible weather forecasts to hundreds of thousands of farmers is a big challenge. To overcome it, we have worked with the Bangladesh Government and local communities to install an automatic weather station covering three of the most vulnerable areas of Bangladesh: Khulna, Satkhira and Jessore.
Weather information is a new concept to these communities and Practical Action are working with them to enable farmers to make the best use of the information. Using a database of nearly 6,000 people in these three districts, we have disseminated 200,000 agro meteorological advisory voice messages, installed 55 digital weather boards, a call centre and trained local agents in around 50 Union Councils..
https://practicalaction.org/forecasting