Delivering Economic Resilience to Climate Change is Imperative for a Sustainable Global Food System
How are weather extremes and variability impacting your life? For farmers around the world who produce our food, this is a serious and challenging question. Fortunately, we have the tools to help farmers adapt and prepare for weather events today. Data, advanced models, and telecommunications now enable us to distill complex weather events and deliver tailored recommendations to farmers to ensure nutritional security. How can we accelerate this process?
During the past month, aWhere has been monitoring our agricultural world to see where and to what extent rainfall variability is impacting India and Nigeria, and how high temperatures impacted the USA and Western Europe – these events were foreseen and actions could be taken but not all farmers had access to this information and appropriate knowledge to respond. aWhere generates 1.7 million virtual weather stations each day by integrating data from traditional weather stations, satellites, and radar to ensure every farmer on the planet is within 6.4 km (4 miles) of a fully functioning and accurate weather station – this is critically important as agriculture is a weather-driven industry.
Beyond the weather data, key indicators such as potential evapotranspiration (PET) helps us understand when a crop is under water stress relative to the amount of precipitation. When the ratio of rainfall to PET is below 0.8, crops like corn or maize show signs of drought. This can lead to a complete crop failure for farmers if no action is taken. These data, when combined with other data resources such as soil type and water access, can help governments plan for sustainable irrigation facilities and cropping systems to deliver long-term nutritional security.
aWhere is now introducing a series called Economic Resilience to Climate Change (ERCC) that will highlight weekly weather variability, the implications for farmers and decision-makers, and what can be done about it. Weather data can serve as the signal to drive a coordinated response to climate change. You are invited to join us on this journey to work in concert to deliver resilience to climate change and empower farmers to produce quality food to meet our ever-increasing demand for nutritious and safe food.