Nepal is one of the world’s most climate vulnerable countries mainly due to its weak technical and financial capability to respond to increased climate change variability. The climate change-induced hazards and risks particularly threaten Nepal’s agriculture sector which are highly dependent on water resources and other climate-sensitive resources. Nepal’s agricultural sector alone employs over two-thirds of the labor force and contributes to roughly one-third of the country’s GDP.
Despite several efforts in improving climate information services, weather forecasts produced by national bodies have limited dissemination in rural and remote areas thereby hindering the agriculture systems to be climate-smart and more productive.
This project attempts to customize the weather and climate information products, issued by the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM), to the needs of the local farmers. The project will adopt a participatory approach with the objective to bridge the ever-existing gaps between the weather/climate change science and their users.
The overall goal of the project is to develop 1) an application programming interface (API) for the automatic dissemination of location-specific customised 3-days weather forecast to farmers of the village in a user-friendly language through mobile and internet-based SMS, 2) to pilot the weather information dissemination system in selected communities and 3) to build farmer’s capacity to use the available weather and climate information.