34 D. Rijks, M.W. Baradas Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 103 2000 27–42
sensed data. Das 1999 mentions a growing interest in the issue of seasonal forecasts. Currently most skill in
seasonal forecasting is achieved in the tropics and sub- tropics and is especially high in El Nino years Ogallo
et al., 2000. In France, farmers can obtain forecasts that help them to practice ‘precision farming’ Perar-
naud and Hamelin, 1999.
Forecasts of the second type emanate usually from an interdisciplinary team, including a meteorologist,
an agronomist, a lifestock husbandry specialist, a plantanimal health officer, a communications spe-
cialist, a representative of the research community and perhaps others.
The forecast product delivered to the clients may consist of information for scheduling day-to-day agri-
cultural operations Baradas, 1982, 1984, 1985 often after consideration of the ongoing agricultural season,
in the light of known results of earlier research. It can also serve to formulate alerts, warnings and alarms on
a technical, social or economic level. Plant protection services e.g. for desert locust control and crop mon-
itoring and yield forecast teams provide further exam- ples of interdisciplinary cooperation to use forecasts.
4.6. Remotely-sensed data Among the meteorological products of remotely-
sensed data are: •
the assessments of components of the radiation regime with or without reference to the underlying
surfaces; •
the surface temperature and by deduction some estimate of the air temperature near the surface;
• wind and airmass movement;
• estimates of the time and areal extent of the occur-
rence of rainfall, drought, flooding, and of frosts. Such information is rarely provided as a finished
product to the clients. Often it is used to complement the purely meteorological products, or delivered in
combination with other remotely-sensed products, such as information on soil wetness, land or vege-
tation cover NDVI, likely presence of pests andor diseases, estimates of the areal coverage of irrigated
or flood-retreat crops, incidence of bush fires, etc. By the nature of their capacity to indicate the probable
areal extent of a condition, and of the still very rapid evolution of the parameters that can be measured
or derived, remotely-sensed data and their derived products will be a growing resource for the supply of
agrometeorological products to clients.
4.7. Results of research Most agrometeorological research is done in an in-
terdisciplinary context. Results can be made available to users in all concerned disciplines. Agrometeorolog-
ical services can take an active role in this dissimi- nation and in the promotion of the use of these re-
sults. Some examples are the results of studies of the relationships of water shortage on crop performance,
pest and disease incidence on crops and animals, rela- tions between meteorology and the ‘performance’ of
the agro-environment.
5. How to approach the client
5.1. Introductory remarks The approach to the client relies on the estab-
lishment of regular contacts, perhaps informally at first and institutionalized later. The meteorologist can
‘search’ for a client by analyzing the agricultural en- vironment and production processes, having an eye
for the ‘market’ for possible applications and suggest- ing existing products, or initializing the development
of new concepts of products.
The process can start with a dialogue on the clients’ work, discussing each step in the agricultural produc-
tion process and the effect of weather factors on these steps. An assessment of the possibility that agrome-
teorological information products can realistically in- crease the efficiency of the steps may also be made.
Such a discussion can deal with the factors that de- termine the highest possible rate of production, limit
production or reduce production below levels already established see Section 3.3. A discussion of aspects
or problems of their work related to meteorological phenomena, could than lead to a joint definition of
the agro-meteorological product that is needed. Such a dialogue requires that the agro-meteorologist has
as great as possible a knowledge about the products that the service can offer or develop. The product
may require the joint provision of input data, hence a joint data collection programme, joint analysis of
D. Rijks, M.W. Baradas Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 103 2000 27–42 35
the data and joint formulation of the message in a user-adapted language.
Before a decision is made to furnish a product to the client, consideration should be given to the possibility
that the client can effectively manage the use of the product. The technology should be of realistic service
to the client.
5.2. Suggesting the nature of the product required by the client
Often, a combined use of climatological, observed and forecast inputs is sought by the client, and the rela-
tive reliability of each component should be identified. There are several types of responses that one may
obtain, when talking to a prospective client: •
The client has all information products needed. In this case one may wish to use the experience of the
client to document oneself on the established bene- fits of the use of agrometeorological information
and use the knowledge for a possible enlargement of the package or extension to other clients;
• The client knows what information is needed, and
may or may not, or may only in part, already obtain it; one can study with the client whether one can
supply the additional information in a more timely or more efficient manner;
• The client does not really, or only vaguely, know
how meteorological information can help him; only by going, together, step by step, through the work
or production process can one identify areas where meteorology might be of use and where the benefits
of provision of information could be examined. One may wish to identify whether the interest of the
client goes in particular to matters of economy, social values, security, sustainability, environment, leisure,
etc. If it is economy, is the emphasis on net return, gross inputs etc? One may have to make a ‘user sen-
sitivity analysis’ and to assess and communicate the value to the client of the information product supplied.
5.3. The communication of the product If available, the dissemination of the product
should, if at all possible, use established and accepted channels, including the most modern ones such as
telephone, fax, internet, file transfer protocol ftp, and TV-video text Krueger, 1999.
When the principal user of meteorological infor- mation was the aviation pilot, the aspect of commu-
nication was solved by face-to-face contact between persons familiar with each other’s job. That situation
has changed. If the information requested is of a cli- matological nature, dissemination in written form and
according to a format specified in consultation with the client is often appropriate. When real-time informa-
tion is asked for by a user whose work details are only superficially known to the meteorologist, such as in
agricultural practises or crop protection, a success- ful solution may be found through the creation of
a formal or an informal interdisciplinary working group. As an example, in Mali Diarra, 1999 and
Sierra Leone Pratt, 1999, representatives of the meteorological, agricultural research, agricultural ex-
tension and crop protection services hold weekly or bi-weekly meetings with representatives of agricul-
tural development and rural radio services to discuss the nature and even the wording of advice to farmers.
This advice is then brought to the farmers by rural radio WMO, 1992 and if necessary complemented
by the local staff of the extension service. Some farm- ers that have demonstrated an understanding of the
relative reliability of the elements in the information and their spatial variability, have agreed to partici-
pate in an evaluation programme, providing feedback and elements for improvements. Thus interdiciplinary
collaboration facilitates the use of information that, if not presented in a user-adapted format, might well go
unused Rijks, 1989.
The information to be disseminated can consist of: •
monitoring statements; •
forecasts of developments relative to a certain phenomenon or operation;
• elements of risk assessment;
• information on the opportunity of agricultural
management or control measures. It can be disseminated in the form of:
• messages sent directly to a client government, user
group, etc.; •
bulletins; •
press articles; •
radio messages; •
TV presentations; •
telephone reply messages; •
interrogable expert systems; •
e-mail;
36 D. Rijks, M.W. Baradas Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 103 2000 27–42
• messages distributed by agricultural or other exten-
sion services; •
messages distributed by commodity services; •
posters in schools or local community halls. The choice of the channel, and of the ‘language’
used, has an influence on the efficiency of the use of the product. In certain cases, the emphasis may have to
be laid on the ‘consequences’ of the use or the non-use of the product, rather than on the product itself. The
monthly weather bulletin of Belize National Mete- orological Service Belize, 1998 is an example of a
communication that is consistently aiming to reach a great spread of users in a user-adapted manner. In In-
dia a special effort is made to render advisories attrac- tive and obtain feedback on their use Shaka, 1999.
Prudence or caution is required when ‘launching’ a new information product. Testing should be done
in-house first, and next in collaboration with the client, who must be aware of the test-aspect of the opera-
tion. A successful example of such a procedure was the pilot project in Mali Direction Nationale de la
Météorologie, 1998.
6. Assessing the value of the product
