Agriculture in Africa – AWS (DTE 16 - 31 August 2020)

Agriculture in Africa – AWS

Weather Stations

TAHMO

Hydromet Program

GeoNetCast

Overview

  • In absence of a robust forecasting infrastructure, mobile phones can improve climate resilience of African farmers
  • UNEP forecast – Africa worst hit by climate resilient
  • In Africa, there is one weather station per 26,000 square kilometres (sq. km) , which is eight times lower than WMO՚s minimum recommended level – in all less than 2000 stations (South Africa (550 automatic weather stations) , spanning 1.2 million sq. km, has the lion՚s share of the weather station network in Africa, it is almost non-existent in sub-Saharan Africa)
  • What is needed - 12,000 new stations across Africa. For this, the World Bank estimates an additional investment of US $ 1 billion, and $ 400 - 500 million per year for staff, operations, and maintenance.
  • Trans-African Hydro-Meteorological Observatory (TAHMO) – brought US, the Netherlands and Africa to develop affordable weather monitoring technology, and place 20,000 WMO-compliant AWS in sub-Saharan Africa (with IBM -300 AWS established) - donors including USAID, the government of Sweden and the Rockefeller Foundation, a US philanthropic organization.
  • World Bank՚s initiative, Africa Hydromet Program, focuses on sub-Saharan Africa. In the first phase, currently underway, $ 600 million has been committed over eight years to modernize the hydrological and meteorological systems of 15 countries.
  • Satellite data - GeoNetCast, a global network of satellite-based data dissemination system founded on a collaboration between the Chinese, European Union and American meteorological agencies, provides environmental data across the globe – information used by National Meteorological Agency, Ethiopia – current resolution is 10kmby 10km (what you gain in resolution is what you lose in accuracy)
  • Mobile network operators have started using commercial microwave links as virtual weather sensors to map rainfall measurements. These close-to-the-ground radio connections are used worldwide in cellular telecommunication networks to connect the core network to the sub-networks. When rain falls, water absorbs and scatters these microwave signals. Using an algorithm, these disruptions can be converted into highly accurate rainfall measurements. In addition, mobile phones also regularly collect data on air pressure, which can be useful in generating short-term forecasts for extreme weather, such as cyclones
  • Agricultural Research Council (ARC) of South Africa takes forecasts from the South African Weather Service, adds information on agriculture and advice regarding livestock, and puts out advisories every month - online platform called AgriCloud, accessible on a mobile phone
  • Over two-thirds of the eastern province of Mpumalanga, home to Kruger National Park, is used for agriculture. But the province has about one extension officer for more than 1,000 farming house-holds

Examrace Team at Aug 20, 2021