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Indigenous knowledge for seasonal weather and climate forecasting across East Africa

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Title Indigenous knowledge for seasonal weather and climate forecasting across East Africa
 
Creator Radeny, Maren A.O.
Desalegn, Ayal
Mubiru, Drake
Kyazze, Florence B.
Mahoo, Henry
Recha, John W.M.
Kimeli, Philip
Solomon, Dawit
 
Subject climate change
agriculture
food security
forecasting
indigenous knowledge
gender
 
Description Climate information and agro-advisory services are crucial in helping smallholder farmers and pastoralists in East Africa manage climate-related risks and adapt to climate change. However, significant gaps exist in provision of climate information that effectively addresses the needs of farmers and pastoralists. Most farmers and pastoralists, therefore, rely on indigenous knowledge (IK), where local indicators and experiences are used to observe and forecast weather conditions. While IK-based forecasting is inbuilt and established in many communities in East Africa, coordinated research and systematic documentation of IK for weather forecasting, including accuracy and reliability of IK is largely lacking. This paper documents and synthesizes existing IK for weather forecasting in East Africa using case studies from Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Uganda. The results show that farmers and pastoralists use a combination of meteorological, biological, and astrological indicators to forecast local weather conditions. IK weather forecasting is, therefore, crucial in supporting efforts to improve access to climate information in East Africa, especially in resource-poor and vulnerable communities. The paper draws valuable lessons on how farmers and pastoralists in East Africa use IK weather forecasts for making crop and livestock production decisions and demonstrates that the trust and willingness to apply scientific forecasts by farmers and pastoralists is likely to increase when integrated with IK. Therefore, a systematic documentation of IK, and a framework for integrating IK and scientific weather forecasting from national meteorological agencies can improve accuracy, uptake, and use of weather forecasts.
 
Date 2019-07-02
2019-08-20T13:14:32Z
2019-08-20T13:14:32Z
 
Type Journal Article
 
Identifier Radeny M, Desalegn A, Mubiru D, Kyazze F, Mahoo H, Recha J, Kimeli P, Solomon D. 2019. Indigenous knowledge for seasonal weather and climate forecasting across East Africa. Climatic Change 156(4):509-526.
0165-0009
https://hdl.handle.net/10568/103231
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-019-02476-9
PII-EA_CSV
PII-EA_Partnerships
 
Language en
 
Rights CC-BY-4.0
Open Access
 
Format 509–526
 
Source Climatic Change