The changes of weather patterns are becoming unpredictable day by day. Indonesian farmers, especially in Bali used to rely on a traditional Balinese calendar. In an area of Western Bali, Jembrana, most of farmers rely on daily observation to plan their activities. Several farmers watch TV in order to gather information about daily weather. This is not reliable as a long term solution, which is most useful to them.
Uncertainty of weather information has directly affected farmers production. Pak Ketut, leader of KSS cooperation stated that their cacao production is slightly decreasing 50% from last year. Both coffee and cacao farmers recognizing this as an issue within the past 2-3 years when seasonal patterns began to change and effect their crops. As su-re.co introduced Climate Field School to the farmers, they starting to express the need for support or adaptation options.
Through a collaboration between su-re.co, Stockholm Environmental Institute, Indonesian Agency for Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics (BMKG), and Government agricultural extension workers, su-re.co are working to combine traditional agricultural knowledge with cutting edge climate science in a way that will put farmers in the best possible position to overcome climate challenges.
Climate field schools mobilise local actors to educate farmers about climate science and how to use it in everyday farming, so that they gain a long-term perspective on their farming activities.
The farmers were introduced to the basics of climate and weather information in order to independently analyse the climate and weather situation. BMKG try to make language more understandable by using traditional language & concepts, and daily observations. The insight is important to help the farmers with the decision-making processes for climate smart agriculture.
Until now, we are successfully conducting 5 Climate Field School for coffee and cacao farmers. Farmers stated that weather information is important in shaping future plans and planning measures. Farmers can easily get in touch with BMKG to get weather information by call or by messaging the officers directly, or for those who have internet access can download InfoBMKG on their smartphone. Cacao and coffee farmers have increased knowledge and skills in utilising climate information to inform their decision making related to farming activities to ultimately improve crop productivity, and in anticipating the impact of future climate change phenomena.
su-re.co is currently launching a crowdfunding campaign to provide Climate Field School for coffee farmers in Flores. Help us to empowering farmers to adapt these new challenges by join our campaign : http://su-re.coffee