Who are the clients

28 D. Rijks, M.W. Baradas Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 103 2000 27–42 cess can be obtained through the appreciation, in what- ever form, by this community of the services rendered. As one of the first steps, it should identify the ‘clients’, their requirements, and their evaluation of the value of the ‘products’ delivered and then offer the desired product to the client in the most appro- priate manner. The delivery of the products relies on the availability of a readily accessible data base, the knowledge of, and access to, an ‘inventory’ of possi- ble application techniques, an infrastructure trained personnel and the physical means to produce the products, and an appropriate product dissemination system. The fine-tuning of the process requires a con- tinuous feedback on the technical, environmental and economic benefits of the system. Improvements in agricultural production may well occur first where the efficiency of the inputs into agri- culture is highest. Such inputs are of different nature: genetic material, energy, water, adapted use of the soil and of the landscape and plant nutrients, management, and of course the weather. Of all those inputs only the weather is free of charge Baradas, 1978, and its influence has been, perhaps because of that reason, relatively little exploited Rijks, 1991. User-tailored weather information for planning, adaptation of the system, and day-to-day operations involving the dosage and timing of application of inputs, is one of the major factors that can increase the efficiency of these measures and help to reduce the risks on the investments made. This aspect defines one group of clients. Another group is involved in general matters or in activities that precede or follow after production has been achieved: marketing, processing, consumer orientation, legal and administrative matters and en- vironmental issues. The relation with the client takes into account: • A description of the basic factors determining the atmospheric environment for agriculture solar radi- ation, temperatures, water availability in all its forms, humidity, the wind regime and other characteristics, such as weather ‘hazards’; • A description of the requirements for each appli- cation and client; • A quantitative formulation of the relationships that exist in respect of the effects of weather on vegeta- tion, soil, open water and animals and the recipro- cal effects of these ‘surfaces’ on their atmospheric environment; and • A process to ‘match’ the requirements of the users to the meteorological conditions that may exist, to optimize the use of all the resources provided by the weather and the other inputs and to min- imize the influence of adverse conditions Rijks, 1986. While at one time the meteorological community may have made a distinction between the use of weather and of climate information, a farmer makes many decisions by combined use of the two Rijks, 1984: Climate Weather choice of farming timing, extent of land system preparation, land layout choice of crops date of planting choice of optimal variety choice of alternative variety choice of farm actual use of equipment; equipment day-to-day farming operation choice of row width within-row distance of plants choice of irrigation timing and amount of water given choice of pest control timing and extent system of controls Agrometeorology can play its role if the clients per- ceive that its products have increased the value of their agricultural production potential, and made actual production approach the potential at equal cost of in- puts. In short, clients must feel that they are customers ‘buying the best deal’. Appendix A shows an example of various meteoro- logical products from Malaysia, their uses and clients Baradas, 1992. These and other subjects will be elaborated in the following paragraphs.

2. Who are the clients

2.1. Definition The statement of the purpose of the 5LTP quoted in the introduction defines implicitly a majority of the ‘clients’ for the information. They may be found in different major groups, even though, if D. Rijks, M.W. Baradas Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 103 2000 27–42 29 one wishes to provide effective service, each client must be considered unique in respect of his or her requirements. The agrometeorologist should know these clients and their goals: • Is the clients’ interest in benefits in the economic, social, security, sustainability, environment, leisure, or other domains? • Is the client a policy maker, a monitoring agent, or a practising producer, etc.? • Can the client ‘pay’ individually for the product, or will remuneration come through a collectivity, e.g. a Chamber of Agriculture, a commodity agency, a marketing unit, etc.? 2.2. The profile of the client The initial client may be the applied meteorologist who is acting as a client of the data-management me- teorologist. To facilitate the work of preparing infor- mation, and to explain its reason and justification to third parties, the product that is desired and that can be ‘marketed’ should be defined clearly. So also should the use that can be made of it, and the benefit that may arise from its use. The client may be another section of one’s own meteorological service, asking for an analysis of data. It may be a government service or a non-government service, an information dissemination unit, such as a local radio. It may be a farmer or a group of farmers or a farmers organization, a plant or animal health protection, forestry or livestock service, a fertilizer company or a soil conservation group. Other clients may be the Ministry of Agriculture or the Ministry of Planning, e.g. for the development of sustainable agriculture, for warnings on alarm situations, bush and forest fires, locust control, for drought allevi- ation measures, flood control, the planning of the movement of stocks of food or seeds. It may be an interest in a national Baradas and Sutrisno, 1981 or international crop monitoring activity, such as that of the FEWS group Famine Early Warning Sys- tem in the US FEWS, 1998, the MARSSAI group Monitoring Agriculture with Remote SensingSpace Applications Institute of the Joint Research Centre of the European Union Vossen and Rijks, 1995, an Embassy, a marketing or a post-harvest crop management service, an entity engaged in the con- servation of the environment, or any other kind of ‘customer’. 2.3. Identification of the client To identify the clients in agricultural, livestock hus- bandry or forestry activities, it is useful to contact the relevant Ministries, the ‘Chambers of Agriculture’ or equivalent units, the commodity institutes, or the dis- trict agricultural and lifestock services. The identification of the client, and of the prod- ucts shehe requires, can be made through a process of listening to the requirements of persons in other disciplines, and through a dialogue about the issues or problems in their work, points that could make their work safer, easier, more efficient, more reliable, etc. In some cases one finds that the prospective client does not know that agrometeorology has a useful prod- uct to offer. Talking with herhim about those aspects of the work that are sensitive to meteorology may make herhim aware of whether shehe could profit from being a customer or not. As a salesperson an agrometeorologist must know the products, described in the clients’ language, that can be ‘sold’ as if the client is a commercial customer, who must be satisfied in order to remain a client. Finally, a meteorological service may ‘discover’ new clients, through a continuing dialogue with repre- sentatives of different spheres of the agricultural com- munity and through the development of new concepts in the application of agrometeorology.

3. What does the client require