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U.S., Zimbabwe researchers help subsistence farmers
U.S. Department of State
August 25, 2005

http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?

Workshops teach farmers to analyze weather data, boost crop yields

Teaching Zimbabwean farmers about weather forecasts and how to use them improved crop yields in that region, according to a study described in an August 24 press release from Boston University (BU) in Massachusetts.

Study findings could help farmers in regions strongly influenced by large global climate variations such as those caused by El Niño and La Niña, say the authors.

El Niño is a warming of the eastern and central Pacific Ocean surface water that occurs every four to 12 years when cold water does not rise to the surface, causing unusual weather patterns. La Niña is a cooling of the surface water off the western coast of South America that occurs every four to 12 years and affects Pacific and other weather patterns.

It is not enough to let subsistence farmers in Zimbabwe know it will be a dry or wet growing season, said BU’s Anthony Patt. The information should be backed up with opportunities for the farmers to meet and ask questions about the forecasts.

MODEL YIELDS MEASURABLE RESULTS

The team's model -- coupling radio-delivered seasonal climate forecasts with workshops for subsistence farmers -- is the first to show that communication with farmers at a grassroots level helps them better understand and apply forecast information to their farming decisions.

"The findings show that the farmers made good decisions in response to good information," says Patt, interpreting the data on improved crop yields for farmers who participated in workshops held for four years in four Zimbabwean villages.

The researchers wanted to know if farmers who used forecast information to make decisions that changed their usual approach to farming actually benefited from having done so.

They also wanted to know if subsistence farmers with access to a sustained, participatory communications process were more likely to use the information than were farmers who heard about the forecasts through less interactive channels, such as radio reports.

Farmers in four villages had access to seasonal weather forecasts by radio. To augment these broadcasts, the team held yearly workshops in each village. Participants were randomly selected from each village's subsistence farmers.

At the workshops, the farmers heard explanations of the rainfall forecasts and asked questions of agricultural service officers. After four years of workshops, the team surveyed participants and nonparticipants in each village about farming decisions, crop yields and other demographic factors.

Two-thirds of workshop attendees had changed their decisions concerning what and when to plant and when to harvest. None of those who had not participated in a workshop changed planting or harvesting decisions.

When the researchers compared crop yields, they found that even in bad growing years, farmers who had participated in workshops reported better crop yields than did farmers who had not participated -- a 9.4 percent increase over two years with an 18.7 percent increase in a particularly good growing year.

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