Developing a guideline on producing and disseminating agromet advisory in Chitwan District

About the writeshop

In collaboration with the Agriculture Knowledge Centre (AKC) in Chitwan, Nepal, we are organising a two-day writeshop for staff from AKC Chitwan, members of the technical advisory committee set up for our pilot project in Chitwan , agriculture extension officers from Chitwan, and experts. The writeshop will focus on developing a guideline for producing and disseminating agromet advisory in Chitwan District. Participants will draft the guideline document to support the agromet advisory generation and expansion process by AKC Chitwan.

Objectives

The overall objective of the writeshop is to develop a draft of the official guideline, incorporating lessons and inputs from professionals. More specifically, the writeshop aims to:

• Capture lessons from the field and experiences of the professionals generating agromet advisories at the national level
• Consult with key stakeholders for the preparation of the guideline document
• Draft the guideline document – to be submitted to the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development (MoALD), Bagmati Province – to support the agromet advisory generation process in AKC Chitwan and for its expansion/scaling in other districts

Background

ICIMOD’s Climate Services Initiative is implementing a pilot project to localise climate services in Chitwan, primarily focusing on agriculture and tourism. The pilot aims to improve livelihoods and enhance people’s resilience in the agriculture and tourism sectors through reduced risks and vulnerabilities using climate information services. Supported by the British Embassy in Nepal, we are implementing the pilot over two years, ending in December 2022.

In collaboration with AKC Chitwan and FORWARD Nepal,  we have been implementing the pilot in four municipalities – Madi, Kalika, Khaireni, and Ratnanagar – in Chitwan to improve the capacity of local institutions, extension workers, and farmers in integrating climate information services in their decision making. Building on earlier efforts to strengthen agromet advisories in Nepal, our pilot focuses on further enriching agromet advisories to make them timelier and more relevant to farmers’ needs.

Our pilot has already established an agromet advisory system with support from the local municipal government, Nepal Agricultural Research Council in Chitwan, Agriculture and Forestry University, and central MoALD. As part of the institutional collaboration mechanism set up under the pilot, a technical advisory committee, comprising subject matter specialists from local institutions, generates a bi-monthly agromet advisory using the information on in-field crop conditions and weather and climate information from Nepal’s Department of Hydrology and Meteorology and other climate information platforms.

Tentative agenda

Tuesday, 15 August 2022

Day 1: Drafting the guideline

Wednesday, 16 August 2022

Day 2: Drafting of the guideline