METAGRI: Workshop on evaluation of the METAGRI OPS project and on preparation of new project METAGRI SERVICES

The workshop was held in Abidjan ((Ivory Coast), from 23 to 27 November 2015, with participation of representatives of the meteorological services of the 17 participating countries (16 countries members of the Conference AFRIMET and Chad) together with WMO and AEMET.

The METAGRI pilot project was launched in 2008 in the context of the programme of cooperation AFRIMET of AEMET and WMO. Funded by AEMET, 160 educational roving seminars were held until 2011, and about 3500 raingauges were distributed among farmers from the 16 countries members of the Conference AFRIMET. The second phase, METAGRI OPS, has being mainly funded by the Government of Norway, through WMO, although the AFRIMET program was still linked to the project and offered some support. From 2012 to 2015, 260 new seminars have been held, and more than 4500 rain gauges have been provided to the farmers of the 17 participating countries. Technical training has also been provided to the meteorological services, and the encounter with the media for the dissemination of meteorological information has been fostered.

During the workshop the successes, difficulties and lessons learned have been examined, and the lines of work of the new METAGRI SERVICES project have been outlined. The new project will be submitted to the next Conference of Directors AFRIMET which will soon be convened.

More information can be found on the webpage of the workshop,

METAGRI : WMO - EUMETSAT course on satellite products utilization in agro- meteorology

The third edition of the course  was held in Ouagadougou ( Burkina Faso), organized by WMO and EUMETSAT , under the METAGRI -OPS project. The two previous editions were held in Niamey (Niger) in 2012 and in Accra (Ghana) in 2013. This edition, in French, was attended by representatives of meteorological services in Benin , Burkina Faso , Cameroon , Ivory Coast , Chad , Guinea , Guinea Bissau , Mali , Mauritania , Niger , Senegal and Togo.

The course, aimed at the specific needs of the region, had teachers of institutions who are active in this field: WMO, EUMETSAT, Land SAF, TAMSAT, JRC, FAO, University of Lisbon. AEMET contributed with specific teachers to present the Barcelona Dust Forecast Centre and Nowcasting SAF products and some experiences in distance learning.

The course, that was very active , has allowed students to share their experiences and challenges in this field of satellite agro- meteorology.

Find here more photos of the event.

All the course’s presentations are available at AFRIMET ‘s files.

Training Courses on crop model SARRA-H

Training Courses on crop model SARRA-H, second edition in Banjul (Gambia) and third edition in Abidjan (Ivory Coast).

Find the report of these courses at AFRIMET’s files.
Learn more about SARRA-H at http://sarra-h.teledetection.fr/SARRAH_Home_En.html

Banjul, 02 - 2014

Abidjan, 03 - 2014

METAGRI: Training for the operational implementation of the SARRA-H crop model

Training for the operational implementation of the SARRA-H crop model in the countries of the Sahel.
METAGRI OPERATIONAL Project of the Conference of Directors of the West African Meteorological Services, AFRIMET

METAGRI Project: Final Statistics

West Africa Agriculture Meteorology Project

Following Las Palmas Action Plan an Expert Meeting on Agrometeorology in the Service of West African Agriculture, organized by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the State Meteorological Agency of Spain (AEMET), at the CILSS Regional Centre for Agricultural Meteorology and Hydrology (AGRHYMET) in Niamey, Niger, from 23 to 24 April 2008.

Twenty experts from Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Spain, WMO and from AGRHYMET and the African Centre of Meteorological Applications for Development (ACMAD), both based in Niamey, participated in the Expert Meeting on Agrometeorology in the Service of West African Agriculture. A new initiative was launched to help the rural communities in West Africa make better use of weather and climate information to increase productivity of their cropping systems.

WMO and AEMET propose to distribute hundreds of low-cost raingauges to volunteer farmers in the five Sahelian countries and train them in using the real-time rainfall data for making operational decisions on field preparations ahead of the rainy season, sowing, fertilizer application, intercultivation, harvesting etc.

WMO and AEMET, in collaboration with the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) of five Sahelian countries (Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal) are being organize at this stage (November 2008) about 40 one-day Roving Seminars on Weather, Climate and Farmers in the five countries to sensitize the farmers about the weather and climate information and it’s applications in operational farm management. It is expected that over 10,000 farmers in the five countries will be benefited by this initiative already being implemented successfully. First Roving Seminars took place in Koulikoro (Mali), on September 2008.