By ESS team

  • The Earth System Services group at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) led the case studies in Malawi and Tanzania.
  • The project aimed to co-design and co-produce climate services tailored to the stakeholders’ needs within the agriculture sector.

After more than 4 years, 6 research visits to Tanzania and Malawi, 2 new climate services and 2 stakeholder workshops in South Africa and Mozambique, the FOCUS-Africa project has ended. 

The Knowledge Integration Team of the Earth System Services group at the Earth Sciences Department of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center-Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS) led the co-development of two case studies: one in Malawi and one in Tanzania. The aim of both was to co-produce climate services tailored for use in the agriculture sector. This was achieved through a strong collaboration with the National Meteorological and Hydrological Service of each country (DCCMS and TMA), as well as through regular engagement with our fellow users: the National Association of Smallholder Farmers (NASFAM) and the Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute (TARI).

Visit to TARI Kibaha regional office, Tanzania, 2022

Case study teams learned from farmers and other stakeholders about their activities and challenges

Valuable research was done with farmers in Kibaha district of Tanzania and in Zomba and Phalombe districts of Malawi where the researchers spoke to farmers and agricultural extension officers about their activities, challenges and the impact climate change has on their livelihoods. The team explored the farmers’ usual ways of preparing for the upcoming season, including their use of indigenous knowledge and how they interpret different traditional indicators such as the flowering of mango trees ahead of a rainy season. In these participatory discussions, their needs for scientific climate information were also assessed, together with the impact climate services could have on their livelihood outcomes. 

Case study team with farmers in Kibaha, Tanzania, 2022

The case study team engaged with other stakeholders who work on assuring food security in Malawi and Tanzania, who also need seasonal and multi-annual climate information. Examples include governmental bodies that prepare disaster responses, such as the Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee, independent institutions assessing food security risk in the country such as the Famine Early Warning Systems Network, Ministries of Agriculture of both countries, NGOs such as Climate Action Network Tanzania working on projects that help implement adaptation measures, or stakeholders who make sure climate information and agricultural advice reaches as many farmers as possible, such as Farm Radio Trust.

Case study team engaging with diverse food security

stakeholders in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 2024

Based on findings, the case study teams co-developed climate services tailored to food security stakeholders

Two climate service prototypes were developed for each of the two countries, based on the findings from the user research undertaken during the first half of the project. They are both interactive online tools, with one focusing on forecasting seasonal time scales, and the other on multi-annual time scales, which is still quite new to the world of climate services. 

Case study team with the DCCMS in Blantyre, Malawi 2024

The seasonal climate forecasting tool, called Teal tool, whose development was led by WEMC, responds directly to some of the biggest concerns for these countries whose population largely depends on rainfed agriculture. It features a forecast of the onset and cessation of the rainy season, as well as predicting the total amount of rain in the season and any dry or wet spells that may occur. All of these forecasts are updated monthly to ensure the best quality information at any given time and are available in an attractive, simple-to-use online platform that the NMHS forecasting teams can integrate into their processes. It also features a downloadable PDF to speed up the process of producing and disseminating seasonal forecast information. 

The multi-annual climate forecasting tool is one of the first prototypes for climate services for food security on this time scale, allowing for longer-term planning and adaptation. Decisions such as investments in new irrigation technologies or selection and multiplication of certain crops and seed varieties could be made using the information in the upcoming 5 years. The platform features climate variables such as temperature and precipitation, but also indicators more specific to use in agriculture, such as the SPEI, indicating drought risk. The novelty of this climate service prototype is its ability to allow the user to choose the highest available quality of information, combining sources from different models, climatology and persistence.

Forecast map of precipitation in Malawi for the next 4 years,

as seen on the Shiny App for multi-annual climate forecasts

FOCUS-Africa had a strong component of assuring its legacy embedded in the project. Therefore, the services will remain accessible to the NMHS of both countries, while work on transferring technical skills and software ownership is ongoing for the seasonal forecasting tool. The work on this project was an invaluable experience for everyone involved and the team hopes to use the knowledge, skills and stakeholders network developed in the last 4 years again in the future.