Accurate weather forecast crucial for farming
It is now clear that there is a looming hunger in the country if the dry spell continues. In many areas in the country they are yet to receive rains that are enough to make them grow their crops.
In other areas where dry planting was done, the crops are wilting. We are January and still no rains instead we have a heat wave.
As it is, farmers are not sure of what will become of their crops and livelihoods which mostly depend on agriculture. Some farmers using their natural instincts did plant early others waited but in either cases, the situation is gloomy.
Most farmers, a larger number which is in rural areas, often use natural instincts and traditional methods of predicting when the rains will come. It was alright then, but now with so many factors such as climate change at play, there is need for modern and accurate means of weather forecasting.
Information from the Department of Meteorological Services and Climate Change has been coming in bits and pieces and not enough for one to make an informed decision.
Accurate weather information is fundamental to the agricultural industry, with many agri-businesses and Malawi’s agro-economy mostly relying directly on the weather elements for production.
There is need for integrating quality weather intelligence into daily operations to ensure agricultural production is optimised. Unfortunately, the Meteorological Services and Climate Change Department is not doing a great job on this one. The information it churns out mostly is not readily digestible by a farmer in rural remote area.
The scientific language need to be translated into a language that a common man can understand and if possible in language that a farmer can easily understand. Often farmers resort to using their intuition and some traditional methods of predicting weather.
The weather affects virtually every aspect in the management of agricultural operations from determining when to plant, harvest and how to store farm produce.
Understanding the weather is vital for optimising production and minimising expenditure. If equipped with accurate weather information, farmers would cut costs they incur in replanting and post production losses will also be minimised. It will also help farmers in selecting crops best suited to the anticipated climatic conditions.
The information should go beyond mere predicting when the rain will come and end but also include temperature, wind speed, humidity, precipitation, radiation among other weather elements.
For now, all we can do is keep fingers crossed and pray that the rains, good and not disastrous rains, will come to nourish the crops that are wilting in in the gardens
