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Weather and climate monitoring for food risk management

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2007

Giampiero Maracchi ,
Valerio Capecchi ,
Anna Dalla Marta  and
Simone Orlandini
Giampiero Maracchi
Affiliation:
Institute of Biometeorology, National Research Council, Via Giovanni Caproni 8, 50145 Firenze
Valerio Capecchi
Affiliation:
Institute of Biometeorology, National Research Council, Via Giovanni Caproni 8, 50145 Firenze
Anna Dalla Marta
Affiliation:
Department of Agronomy and Land Management - University of Florence - Piazzale delle Cascine 18, 50144 Firenze Email: [email protected]
Simone Orlandini
Affiliation:
Department of Agronomy and Land Management - University of Florence - Piazzale delle Cascine 18, 50144 Firenze Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Food insecurity represents one of the main indicators of the poverty level of a country and can breed a strong dependence on foreign aid with a strong slowdown of the national economy. African arid and semi-arid areas are characterised by food precariousness and their agricultural activity is strongly dependent on the extreme climatic conditions that affect the available water supply. This situation has led to the need to develop new tools for the prediction and the management of crisis. The characterisation of climate and the identification of anomalies, the monitoring of weather conditions and their influence on crops, short and medium range weather forecasts and long-term climate predictions are among the most powerful tools to predict, in as short a time as possible, crises due to the absence or delay of rainfall season. Meteorological information can also be used as an input to agrometeorological models applied for crisis prevention or for its management during the growing season when the crops are already present. In this paper, a review of these tools is made and some operational products presented.

Keywords

rainfall estimatefood securityWest African Monsoonseasonal forecastingSahelagrometeorology
Type
Research Article
Information
Meteorological Applications , Volume 13 , Issue S1 , December 2006 , pp. 55 - 59
Copyright
Royal Meteorological Society

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