CLIMTAG

DATE

23 – 27, November 2022

About CLIMTAG

CLIMTAG, the CLimate InforMation Tool for AGriculture, aims to provide decision makers in the agricultural sector with operational climate information, for example about the start of the agriculture season or the duration of a drought period.

The web-based tool operates at country level and visualizes past, present and future climate information, allowing its users to assess the severity of upcoming climatic changes.

These indicators have been defined in cooperation with local stakeholders (includingexperts active within National Meteorological Services, Departments of Agriculture and Research Centers). The CMIP5 climate projections are bias-corrected to strengthen their consistency with the past observed climate. Based on orographic information, the indicators are downscaled to a resolution of one kilometer to ensure practical applicability in the field.

In addition, in the CLIMTAG Tool, seasonal forecast is one of the strategic information in the adaptation to climate variability and change in the agriculture sector.

Indeed, the development and dissemination of information characterizing the rainy season before it starts would allow decision makers and various actors to make optimal choices to address the season. For example, advance knowledge of the characteristics of the rainy season (early or late onset, excess or deficit rainfall) would enable development actors, disaster management agencies and humanitarian agencies to better make strategic decisions or other mitigation measures to ensure pre-disaster preparedness.

Within the tool, users can select the dataset (ERA5 vs. CMIP5), time horizon (past, present, near, medium and long term) and climate indicator of interest.

The climate information appears in a dynamic and customizable country map. In addition, within season variability and future trends can be explored at district level via intuitive graphs.

Users can also download the information for further use in documentation or downstream applications.

CLIMTAG OBJECTIVES :

The overall objective of the workshop is to contribute to the strengthening capacity of the meteorologist experts from National Hydro-Meteorological Services over the 11 countries of Central Africa Region. This is done through training, forecast production and sharing experience.

The specific objectives are to:

  • Assess needs and current use of climate information in the ECCAS region using survey questionnaire;
  • Identify, explore and discuss agriculture relevant climate data in the Copernicus Climate Change data store;
  • Run practical sessions on indices generation and use with CLIMTAG Tool;
  • Update seasonal climate forecasts valid for the seasons November 2022 to January 2023 in Central Africa and in Africa;
  • Share experiences on good practices for assessment of climate information use;

EXPECTED OUTCOME :

The key expected outcome of the workshop will include:

  • Survey questionnaire on the use of climate products by ECCAS NMHSS administered and responses collected;
  • national experts’ capacity strengthened;
  • National experts are trained on use of CLIMTAG and generation of the indices for agriculture sector;
  • Good practices and experiences are shared;
  • The seasonal forecast is updated and advisories are provided;
  • A report on climate products uses and related challenges by NMHSS available;

Contact

For more inquiries, please contact this following link:  dgacmad@acmad.org