The fund was acquired through the Global Environment Facility (GEF)-funded Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change Project (AACCP).
The presentation was held at the Department of Water Resources. The equipment included evaporation pans, digital thermometers, cup counters, calibrated totalizing anemometers, campbell stokessunshine recorders, digital mixers, microphones and studio speakers.
Dr Mustapha Ceesay, assistant FAO Country Representative, said the equipment would help the DWR in their data monitoring efforts as well as empower the five community radio stations in the project's intervention areas of Central River Region (CRR) North and South and Upper River Region (URR) to effectively disseminate critical weather-related information to local communities.
Dr Ceesay added that extreme weather and climate events such as severe droughts, floods and temperature shocks impede sustainable farming development and contribute to the vulnerability of farming families as well as rural communities. He also said that building “national capacity for climate services is critical” to securing the national food systems under a changing climate.
“The agro-met tools will benefit resource-poor upland farmers and communities improve natural and climate-related disaster risk readiness,” Dr Ceesay stated, adding that farmers urgently need weather and climate information for operational decision-making and production planning.
“Positive results are achieved when weather and climate information are made available to farmers and the public domain in a timely and efficient manner,” he said. “It also increase farm information and help agricultural crop yields and reduce risks and risk associated costs emanating from prolonged dry spells, droughts, floods, and other climate change-induced disasters.”
Water Resources director Lamin Mai Touray said the equipment would ensure timely release of weather forecasts and early warning bulletins to the public and empower farmers. “With the increasing impact of climate change in The Gambia, leading to more severe weather, along with shorter and irregular rainy seasons, the importance of providing timely and accurate weather and climate data is critical for all Gambians,” he said, adding that it would help farmers to plant their crops at the best time, prepare for heavy rains and droughts as well as to manage high temperatures and humidity that can cause harm to the most vulnerable.
He further said: “Specialised agro-met tools with the expansive reach of community radio networks holds the potential to provide invaluable weather updates, critical data, amplify resilience and promote better production and better lives.”
