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Transforming climate science into usable services: The effectiveness of co-production in promoting uptake of climate information by smallholder farmers in Senegal

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Relation http://oar.icrisat.org/11770/
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cliser.2020.100203
doi:10.1016/j.cliser.2020.100203
 
Title Transforming climate science into usable services: The effectiveness of co-production in promoting uptake of climate information by smallholder farmers in Senegal
 
Creator Chiputwa, B
Wainaina, P
Nakelse, T
Makui, P
Zougmoré, R B
Ndiaye, O
Minang, P A
 
Subject Smallholder Agriculture
Climate Change
 
Description Does the provision of weather and climate information services (WCIS) enhance farmer’s use of forecasts in
informing farm decisions? This paper assesses the effectiveness of the Multi-disciplinary Working Group (MWG)
– a WCIS co-production initiative in Senegal in influencing farmers uptake of weather and climate information
(WCI). WCIS are increasingly gaining importance and widely touted as critical in helping farmers adapt to
climate variability. While there have been various WCIS initiatives producing and translating climate data into
tailored information and knowledge in different parts of the world, there is hardly any rigorous evidence
assessing their effectiveness in improving uptake. In this assessment, we use innovative survey methods and
apply rigorous analytical approaches that control for self-selection bias to establish causal linkages between the
MWG and use of WCIS. Our findings indicate that MWGs are positively associated with farmers’ awareness,
access and uptake of WCI resulting in farm management responses depending on the type of information used.
The presence of MWGs generally increases farmer’s awareness of WCI by 18%, access by 12% and uptake by
10%. Furthermore, use of seasonal forecasts is generally associated with a higher proportion of farmers using
improved seed, fertilizers and manure, but negatively with crop diversification within MWG locations. This
suggests that participatory approaches in the provision of tailored climate information and advisory services can
lead to higher uptake and use among farmers in informing farm management responses for better adaptation to
climate change. We highlight lessons for improved evaluations of WCIS in future.
 
Publisher Elsevier
 
Date 2020-11
 
Type Article
PeerReviewed
 
Format application/pdf
 
Language en
 
Identifier http://oar.icrisat.org/11770/1/main.pdf
Chiputwa, B and Wainaina, P and Nakelse, T and Makui, P and Zougmoré, R B and Ndiaye, O and Minang, P A (2020) Transforming climate science into usable services: The effectiveness of co-production in promoting uptake of climate information by smallholder farmers in Senegal. Climate Services, 20. pp. 1-17. ISSN 2405-8807