FINAL TECHNICAL REPORT
1. Home Institution: KENYA SUGAR RESEARCH FOUNDATION
2. Fellowship Type:
POLICY
3. ACCFP Fellow:
CAROLINE AGOSA KIRUNGU
3. Report Date:
SEPTEMBER 2010
INTRODUCTION
The generation and dissemination of agrometeorological information is often
limited by the interaction of people, from the meteorologist who gives the
probabilistic forecast to the end user who uses these forecasts for planning. To
limit this gap, agrometeorologists who are a link between the physical world of
meteorologists and the biophysical world of agriculturalists must have a thorough
knowledge and skills in their subject-matter area, including skills in providing
education and instruction, solving problems, and integrating technology. They
should be able to install, calibrate and collect data from an array of
meteorological instruments of agrometeorological interest keeping in mind the
impact of technological changes on the way climatic data is collected. They
should collect, analyze climatic data and decode the probabilistic weather
forecasts and produce useful climate related information ready for use by those
interested in using climate information in agriculture.
The information thus generated should then be disseminated in an effective way.
This makes agrometeorological extension an important component of the training
of agrometeorologists as it provides them with skills needed for the integration of
climate information into risk management strategies of communities with climatesensitive livelihoods. The three courses in instrumentation, climate and weather
data
My fellowship titled ‘Communicating climate change - Coursework and
comparative practical experience in South Africa’ was co-hosted by the
University of the Free State (UFS) and the South African Sugar Research
Institute (SASRI).
The objective of the fellowship was to improve my
understanding on climate change in terms of its impact on agriculture and
particularly on the sugar industry and to learn how to communicate these
projected impacts to the research and farming communities. The fellowship
constituted of one semester at the UFS where lectures and practicals were taken
and a month-long attachment at SASRI where I worked on a literature review on
climate change and sugarcane modelling.
Objectives:
1. Learn how to test, calibrate and evaluate specialized instruments for
good data collection in Agrometeorology.
2. Acquire skills in communicating climate information to farming
community
3. Learn how to used climate and weather forecasts to produce
agricultural advisories for early warning and strategic planning.
4. Acquire hands-on experience on the statistical analysis of weather and
climate data
5. Acquire hands-on experience on the use of climate data at research
and farm level by SASRI and sugarcane farmers in Kwa-Zulu.
The following courses were undertaken;
LWR 601 – Agrometeorological services for extension
A participatory approach involving researchers, farmers, and advisers, and which
involves on-farm trials and simulation methods would be most effective in climate
change impacts on a farming system. This course helped me understand the
various communication channels and methods of technology transfer with
specific emphasis on weather bulletins and advisories (for the whole range of
temporal and spatial scales) for use by farmers, extension officers and policy
makers. I also learned how to conduct a participatory needs assessment survey
to determine end-user needs, and how to develop new products from available
forecasts and information obtained from meteorologists or climatologists.
Caroline Agosa with her host supervisor Prof. Sue walker
LWR602
Data analysis for weather and climate
An assessment of the plausible impacts of climate variability and change on
agriculture must be based on a reference period under consideration of what
future climate would be like. Data for climate change impact assessments and
adaptation in the agriculture sector is huge, as such; inferences can only be
made after a thorough statistical analysis of past crop and climate data and
projections into the future made. It is therefore mandatory that the correct quality
data be collected and analyzed.
This course provided skills to perform basic
statistical procedures to weather and climate data sets, weather forecasts and
also forecast verification.
LWR603
Specialized instrumentation
Climatic data is required before giving recommendations about land use and to
increase the quality and quantity of agricultural production and decrease
production costs. Real time meteorological information can also be effectively
used in agricultural production process such as the timing of different activities,
e.g. land preparation, sowing, fertilizer application and pest and disease control.
This course provided skills to enable me test, calibrate and evaluate specialized
instruments in Agrometeorology. The instrumentation ranged from basic weather
collecting instruments to instruments used in crop physiology trials.
LWR695
Literature review
I conducted a literature review on ‘modelling climate change impacts on
sugarcane’ and made a presentation to staff of the South African Sugar
Research Institute (SASRI) on the 14th July 2010 during my time there.
Because of the importance of sugarcane as a source of renewable energy it is
essential to understand how this crop will respond to the increase of Carbondioxide and temperatures expected to occur in this century.
The review conducted focused on the effects of temperature, water and carbon
dioxide on the phenology, photosynthesis, respiration and yields of crops with the
aim of identifying how sugarcane simulation models can be improved to simulate
these effects and hence become good tools for simulating climate change effects
In the literature review, the fundamentals of climate change and climate
variability were discussed. The downscaled climate change scenarios for both
Kenya and South Africa were reviewed with the view of recommending region
specific adaptation strategies. The potential climate changes impacts on crop
production were also reviewed. This was accomplished by reviewing the potential
effects of elevated temperature, altered rainfall patterns and amounts and
Carbon dioxide enrichment on specifically the C4 crops. Approaches in identifying
climate effects on crop growth and development were identified and reviewed.
Examples of studies on effects of elevated temperature and Carbondioxide on sugarcane growth were evaluated. These studies showed that
at leaf level, sugarcane is potentially positively responsive to projected
carbon-dioxide enrichment. The challenge remains for these responses to
be scaled-up to canopy level where most process based simulation models
work. Finally, the working principles behind the CaneGro model which is a
sugarcane simulation model developed by SASRI were discussed and possible
modifications to model climate change effects on sugarcane suggested.
This review was presented to the scientific community at SASRI on the 14th July
2010. The scientists appreciated this effort and made great contributions and
suggestions on the way forward.
Caroline (at the laptop) makes a presentation to scientists at SASRI. On her right is the cohost supervisor Dr. Abraham Singels
RESULTS
My final exam marks in the units taken are as follows;
Module
Mark
Result
LWR601
82
Pass with Distinction
LWR602
77
Pass with Distinction
LWR603
75
Pass with Distinction
LWR695
69
Pass
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This project was funded through the African Climate Change Fellowship Program
(ACCFP).
The ACCFP is supported by a grant from the Climate Change
Adaptation in Africa (CCAA), funded jointly by the International Development
Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada and the UK’s Department of International
Development (DFID). The International START Secretariat is the implementing
agency in collaboration with the Institute of Resource Assessment (IRA) of the
University of Dar Es Salaam and the African Academy of Sciences (AAS).
I gratefully acknowledge START for funding this fellowship and KESREF for
giving me the opportunity to attend this fellowship