Dissemination of Downscaled Climate Prediction Products to Farmers for Adaptation to Climate Variability and Change

Agriculture continues to play a very important role in most of our traditional economies, as a major contributor to export earnings and as a source of employment and livelihood. However, the productivity of the sector is highly influenced by weather and climate, which at times are not favourable. For a long time, there was a missing link between climate information products and their utilisation by end user farmers. This project attempted to comprehensively evaluate the applicability of community based climate services in improving livelihoods of vulnerable farmers. It successfully demonstrated that community-based climate services can undoubtedly improve Agricultural productivity if properly utilized in planning, decision-making and management of all farming operations. Its major aim was to contribute to community level climate risk reduction in agriculture and food security sector through development and dissemination of community demand-driven climate information for application in agricultural planning, decision-making and management. The project was a joint collaborative effort of many partners (including Kenya Meteorological Services (KMS), University of Nairobi, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology, Technical University of Kenya, National Drought Management Authority of Kenya, and other National and International Partners and Local Governments of Kisumu and Kajiado, among others). The partners had specific roles but worked together to provide community-specific advisories for climate risk reduction based on integrated local community knowledge and modern climate forecasts. It was supported by The Rockefeller Foundation.