A. Weiss et al. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 103 2000 185–196 193
mailing of a survey and to target the names for a sec- ond mailing, if necessary. Once the study, based on
survey results, has been completed all materials relat- ing to the mailing lists and surveys must be destroyed.
Survey results must be communicated to the necessary agencies that developed and funded the sur-
vey for evaluation of current programs and for future planning. The results may be published in the appro-
priate scientific journals and shared with colleagues at scientific meetings. The initial respondents should
not be forgotten in this communication process. By providing a summary of the survey results to the re-
spondents, not only are the survey developers giving feedback to those who participated in the survey, they
are developing a marketing tool. The feedback may be used to develop interest, support, and future users
of the information dissemination system.
Some of the questions mentioned here may not be relevant to a region, other questions may have to be
added, and some questions may have to be deleted. The following questions serve as an example.
• Location: Answers to this question give an idea of
the demographics of the end user. •
For pest surveys: Occurrence of pest in the last sev- eral years. Response to this question gives an idea
of locations where pest has occurred and if these locations fit into what ‘experts’ have predicted or
noted. Ability to identify pest. Provide several de- scriptors. If the end user can’t identify pest or pest
symptoms, then this is an area of further education that fits into the training needs of end users.
• Has the respondent used the information delivery
system? •
Has the information been helpful? At this point in the survey for the remaining relevant questions,
there should be several options such as ‘strongly agree’, ‘agree’, ‘neutral’, ‘disagree’, and ‘strongly
disagree’. If yes, how has the information been helpful? List
several key components of the information delivery system; e.g., timeliness, caused the end user to think
differently about the situation, easy to understand the different recommendations and their consequences,
easy to implement recommendations.
If no, how has the information not been helpful? List same options as mentioned earlier. Possibly the
end user knew how to deal with the management sit- uation and the information was not needed.
• What feature did the user like most about the
information delivery system? List several options, respondent can also fill in blanks.
• What feature did the user like least about the
information delivery system? List several options, respondent can also fill in blanks.
• What improvements would the user like to see in
the system? Leave blank spaces to fill in responses. Responses may indicate areas for future research.
• Would the user be willing to pay for this informa-
tion? If no, what improvements in the system would
make users change their minds? Leave blank spaces to fill in responses. Again, responses may indicate
areas for future research or changes in dissemina- tion.
• How should the cost of this information delivery
system be supported? Rate percentage of cost to be borne by each entity. Choices should include
government, university, farmers association, private industry, and others sources.
8. Some critical questions
Continued improvement in communicating agrom- eteorological information to farming communities re-
quires addressing the following critical questions. How can diverse types of agrometeorological data
be integrated into useful information that responds to the often-dissimilar application needs of farming
communities? Agrometeorologists change data into information
through whatever tools are available, currently through the use of computer-based technologies. In addressing
the first question, we must begin by considering the training of agrometeorologists. Training in this area
should include an appreciation of the complex inter- actions of biotic and abiotic factors on plants and ani-
mals. This addition to the traditional training of agrom- eteorologists is necessary to provide a larger perspec-
tive to the transformation of data into useful informa- tion.
As plants and animals go through their life cycles, they encounter different meteorological conditions and
are subjected to different kinds of biotic and abiotic stresses. While the same meteorological variables are
measured e.g., temperature, solar radiation, precipi-
194 A. Weiss et al. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 103 2000 185–196
tation, etc. throughout these life cycles, their applica- tions to the different potential problems change. It is
necessary to know when these different stress related problems can occur and to evaluate these situations
based on current and predicted meteorological condi- tions. For example, plant now or wait a week in an-
ticipation of rain, will it be necessary to irrigate in the next week, should a preventative measure against pests
be made, the impact on quality of harvesting now or waiting a week, and contracting grain before harvest.
What types of information are needed by diverse groups of end-users and, given their different farm-
ing, socio-economic and cultural systems, which are the appropriate communication technologies to reach
them?
The information needed for diverse groups of end-users growing the same crops or raising the same
animals is basically the same. The differences arise from the human and financial resources available
to implement this information and the methods of information dissemination. These differences must
be considered in designing any information dis- semination system. For those who have access, the
Internet is a major source of data and information on all aspects of agricultural production. Data and
information on the Internet are available from uni- versities, industry, and advisory services, sometimes
for a fee. At present, many national and sub-national agrometeorological services use the Internet to dis-
seminate very useful information, e.g., real-time crop information such as water requirements, ad-
vice on pest disease, etc. Another example of useful agrometeorological information provided through
Internet can be found at the Provincial Agromete- orological Centre of San Michele all’Adige Italy:
http:www.ismaa.ithtmlitameteoagri.html.
As we have seen, however, the availability of In- ternet hosts is extremely limited in many developing
countries. ICTs offer great hope for innovative dissem- ination of agrometeorological information to farm-
ing communities. In most cases at present, however, reaching the majority of farmers in developing coun-
tries with agrometeorological information, especially small-scale farmers in remote areas, will require spe-
cial targeted communication efforts that utilize local media such as radio.
Given diminishing public support for agricultural advisory services, what alternatives exist for the com-
munication of agrometeorological information and un- der which circumstances can it be provided on a fee
basis? First, as much as possible, agricultural advisory
services must accurately document the added value and impacts of these services. This should be done as
a proactive rather than a reactive position. The doc- umentation should include the monetary value of the
information, if used properly. Just because accurate in- formation is disseminated doesn’t mean that it will be
used or used properly. Included in this documentation should be detailed descriptions on changes in positive
behaviour impacts, e.g., higher yields due to im- proved forecasts of the beginning of the rainy season,
uses of techniques that minimize chemical applica- tions and ground water pollution, or limit soil erosion,
based on disseminated information. This documenta- tion may positively influence government funding.
The information must be prepared by agrometeo- rologists in a way that the majority of users will easily
understand it. Then it can be adapted and sent to key communication outlets such as radio, television, news-
papers, bulletins, specialized information networks and web sites for broad-scale as well as targeted dis-
semination. From the perspective of these media out- lets, the information must also have a value, a different
value than intended for the end users. Various types of users may buy the products advertised by the different
media outlets or subscribe to information services.
In this era of tighter government funding for agricul- ture, how can agrometeorological based information
be effectively disseminated? As noted previously, this information must first have an added value; if it has a
value, then there will be a demand for it. For exam- ple, the German Weather Service DWD has formed
publicprivate partnerships to provide different details of agrometeorological information at different prices
to a wide range of users, Kruger and Dommermuth, 1999. In this process, the Department of Agrome-
teorology was reorganized into the Business Unit of Agriculture.
Munthali 1999 addressed some of these issues in a survey of users of agrometeorological informa-
tion in Malawi. Commercial farms, which have well trained staff and access to ICT, were candidates for
specialized information on a fee basis. At the other end of the farming spectrum, small holders would re-
quire the interaction of extension personnel to obtain
A. Weiss et al. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 103 2000 185–196 195
the necessary information. In addressing diminishing public support for meteorological services, it was sug-
gested that information be treated as a commodity, and marketing plans be developed for user fees, where
possible.
The earlier mentioned discussion has tacitly as- sumed that a fee for information implies an exchange
of money for a service. This situation may not be appropriate in many developing nations. Fee can also
be thought of as an exchange of one service for an- other service, such as collecting weather or crop data
and transmitting these data in a timely fashion to an agrometeorological center. In return, the provider of
these data could receive management recommenda- tions not normally provided in a general agricultural
weather forecast. For a system based on an exchange of one service for another service to be successful,
both sides have to receive value for their service. For the provider of data, it may mean higher yields, while
for the agrometeorological center, it may mean data that are needed to help form a governmental policy.
FRIENDS Farming and Rural Information Exper- tise and Dissemination Services is an EU-funded
project that provides remote Greek agricultural com- munities with information and expertise, Thompson
1998. One group of users is ‘access point users’ from the Greek Union of Young Farmers UYF. The
use of access points, which are workstations manned by site managers, helps to overcome the problem that
the majority of Greek farmers lack basic computer skills. Site managers help visiting farmers get the
information they want to retrieve from the system.
FRIENDS collects, maintains and distributes a wide variety of agricultural information services.
These services range from national weather, EU leg- islation and daily agricultural market prices in Athens
to online-consulting and transactions. FRIENDS acts as the information channeler — aggregating, filtering,
packaging then disseminating it to the farmers and other users.
A key success factor has been ‘one-stop shopping’ for agricultural information — FRIENDS aggregates
agricultural information from many sources and saves users valuable time by aggregating these sources in
one format WebPages and presenting them in one place the FRIENDS website. The most basic value
FRIENDS adds to its information services is intelli- gently filtering the information it provides.
What are the training needs of end-users and of the various intermediaries that provide them with advisory
services? Before the training needs of end-users and interme-
diaries can be addressed, the question of motivation for users to access and use the information should be
discussed. While altruistic values to use the informa- tion can be a source of motivation, e.g., sustainability
of the environment, they will probably have minimal success. Farming is a long-term business, and like any
business, its practitioners want to be successful — mo- tivation should be based on sustainable profitability.
Given this perspective, what information is needed? What information is already available? What infor-
mation needs to be provided? Of the information that needs to be provided, what information is of primary
importance, secondary importance, etc? Addressing these questions requires assessments of the informa-
tion needs and resources of specific groups within the diverse user community. In order to facilitate the com-
munication of information to the user community, so- cial scientists should interact with agrometeorologists
to provide a structure for the information that is suited to the target audience.
9. Conclusions
