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Weather, climate, and farmers: an overview

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2007

Roger C. Stone  and
Holger Meinke
Roger C. Stone
Affiliation:
Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries, 203 Tor Street, Toowoomba 4350, Australia Faculty of Sciences, University of Southern Queensland, Darling Heights, Toowoomba 4350, Australia Email: Roger.Stone@dpi.qld.gov.au
Holger Meinke
Affiliation:
Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries, 203 Tor Street, Toowoomba 4350, Australia Agricultural Production Systems Research Unit, 203 Tor Street, Toowoomba 4350, Australia
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Abstract

Challenges in linking meteorological and climatological information with a wide range of farming decisions are addressed in this paper. In particular, while a considerable amount of weather and climate information is now available for farmers, some types of information under development or already operational, particularly climate forecasting, formation, may be ill-suited for use by farmers for their decision-making. Case studies show it is particularly important for those key farm decisions that are amenable to weather and climate information to be identified clearly so that weather and climate information can be better tailored to suit farming decisions. A participatory approach provides farmers with ownership of the processes associated with development of weather and climate information and facilitates advances in linking climate and weather information and forecasts to farm decisions. Decision-support systems provide useful output when used with farmer discussion groups. Developing appropriate interdisciplinary systems to connect climate, weather, and agronomic information, especially including forecasting systems, with farm management is needed if uptake of weather and climate information by farmers is to be successful. Provision of output of climate change scenario and trend information to aid long-term strategic farm management decisions needs to be considered, especially in regions where more vulnerable farming zones exist.

Keywords

climate and weather forecastingdecision-support systemsparticipative approaches
Type
Research Article
Information
Meteorological Applications , Volume 13 , Issue S1 , December 2006 , pp. 7 - 20
Copyright
Royal Meteorological Society

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