Terms of Reference for WMO CAgM Expert Teams
Commission for Agricultural Meteorology (CAgM)
OPAG 1: Agrometeorological
Services for Agricultural Production
1.1 Implementation/Coordination Team for Agrometeorological Services
(a) To review and coordinate the activities of the OPAG, as well as
additional related activities of priority to the Commission, in
order to ensure their effective implementation and adoption within
Member countries;
(b) To consider agrometeorological requirements for developing
farm-level strategies and for making specific proposals for
applications to agriculture, forestry and fisheries,
based on the output of the ETs;
(c) To make recommendations on regional training needs to improve
agrometeorological services to farms, forests and fisheries;
(d) To ensure accurate, reliable and systematic procedures for
regionalized services to agriculture;
(e) To raise awareness of the work of the OPAG and to capture
opportunities for promoting its work;
(f) To liaise with the various coordinators of the CAgM MG, as
appropriate, in the implementation of the activities of the team;
and
(g) To prepare reports in accordance with timetables established by
the OPAG and/or the MG.
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1.2 Expert Team on Strengthening Operational Agrometeorological
Services
(a) To document case studies on use and development of operational
agrometeorological services for different regions and
agro-ecological zones;
(b) To use examples of services to compile a protocol of essential
components and procedures needed for successful agrometeorological
services;
(c) To prepare guidelines for operational interface between NMHSs
and farmers (namely for farmer’s field days, farmers field schools
and roving seminars);
(d) To better utilize media capabilities in order to develop and
enhance agromet service delivery;
(e) To establish more effective communication methods for
interactions with farmers and obtain feedback to promote the use of
operational agromet services;
(f) To prepare reports in accordance with timetables established by
the OPAG and/or the MG.
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1.3 Expert Team on Application of Agrometeorological Products and
Services for
Sustainable Agricultural Development
(a) To document the use of agrometeorological products and services
for policy decision makers both government and international NGOs
(Red Cross, Care, World Vision);
(b) To collect case studies of agrometeorological products and
services for grasslands, livestock, and natural resources
management;
(c) To review and summarize agrometeorological products and services
using response farming principles;
(d) To develop a list of agrometeorological products and services
available to combat the influence of unfavourable weather and
climate on sustainable agriculture;
(e) To promote agrometeorological courses for wider use in
universities;
(f) To prepare reports in accordance with timetables established by
the OPAGs and/or MG.
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OPAG 2: Support Systems for Agrometeorological Services
2.1 Implementation/Coordination Team on Support Systems for Agrometeorological
Services
(a) To review and coordinate the activities of the OPAG, as well as
additional related activities of priority to the Commission, in
order to ensure their effective implementation and adoption within
Member countries;
(b) To review the operational applications of current
agrometeorological data, analytical tools, and information delivery
systems at the national and regional levels;
(c) To make recommendations on procedures, methodologies and
resources to improve the regional-based capability for operational
applications;
(d) To raise awareness of the work of the OPAG and to capture
opportunities for promoting its work;
(e) To liaise with the various coordinators of the CAgM MG, as
appropriate, in the implementation of the activities of the team;
and
(f) To prepare reports in accordance with timetables established by
the OPAG and/or MG.
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2.2 Expert Team on Developing Agrometeorological Decision Support
Systems at
Different Scales
(a) To review the various support systems for agrometeorological
services for decisionmaking
at different levels of scale (farm-scale, catchment scale, marketing
scale and policy scale);
(b) To prepare a comprehensive review on the use of weather
forecasts and climate predictions including NWP products
supplemented with GIS, RS information and ICT tools for
agrometeorological applications;
(c) To develop a framework of support systems for different
decision-making scales by diverse Levels Of Farmers;
(d) To develop guidance material on decision support systems for
agrometeorological services at different scales;
(e) To make recommendations on the use of weather forecast and
climate predictions including NWP products supplemented with GIS, RS
information and ICT tools for agrometeorological applications;
(f) To prepare reports in accordance with timetables established by
the OPAG and/or MG.
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2.3 Expert Team on Software Resources for Operational Applications
in Agrometeorology
(a) To review the current software resources available and needed
for operational applications in agrometeorology with appropriate
delivery and feedback
mechanisms at farmer’s level;
(b) To promote agrometeorological operational applications and
information delivery systems that are profitable to optimize
knowledge about weather- climate-crop
relations;
(c) To review agrometeorological information that farmers need in
order to adopt strategic and tactical planning;
(d) To develop guidance material on agrometeorological operational
applications and information delivery system;
(e) To make recommendations on appropriate delivery and feedback
mechanisms at farmer’s level to providers of agrometeorological
information;
(f) To prepare reports in accordance with timetables established by
the OPAG and/or MG.
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OPAG 3: Climate Change/Variability and Natural Disasters in
Agriculture
3.1 Implementation/Coordination Team on Climate Change/Variability
and Natural
Disasters in Agriculture
(a) To review and coordinate the activities of the OPAG, as well as
additional related activities of priority to the Commission, in
order to ensure their effective implementation and adoption within
Member countries;
(b) To summarize the status of climate change/variability studies as
they impact national and regional agriculture, forestry and
fisheries;
(c) To appraise and report on current capabilities in the analysis
of climate change and variability specifically as they relate to and
affect agriculture, forestry and fisheries at the national and
regional levels;
(d) To review the results of climate change and variability
scenarios at the regional level and promote appropriate
agrometeorological adaptation strategies to mitigate the impacts on
the productivity of agricultural, forestry and fisheries;
(e) To identify deficiencies in the operational applications of
long-range predictions for agriculture, and make recommendations for
improving the technology for the benefit of agriculture at the
national and regional levels;
(f) To raise awareness of the work of the OPAG and to capture
opportunities for promoting its work;
(g) To liaise with the various coordinators of the CAgM MG, as
appropriate, in the implementation of the activities of the team;
and
(h) To prepare reports in accordance with timetables established by
the OPAGs and/or MG.
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3.2 Expert Team on Weather and Climate Extremes and Impacts and
Preparedness
Strategies in Agriculture, Rangelands, Forestry, and Fisheries
(a) To determine the critical areas where agricultural production is
vulnerable to extremes in different regions; and to suggest
continuous monitoring strategies for early detection in vulnerable
areas;
(b) To appraise and report on current capabilities in the analysis
of climate risks and to summarize the different strategies of coping
with climate risks in agriculture, rangelands, forestry and
fisheries in collaboration with CCl, where appropriate;
(c) To evaluate and further develop methodologies for climate risk
mapping for use by insurance industry; and
(d) To submit reports in accordance with timetables established by
the OPAG and/or the MG.
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3.3 Expert Team on the User Response to Climate Variability and
Climate Change:
Adaptation to Changing Climate at the Regional Level
(a) To review and assess the response of agricultural communities to
climate change, in order to improve their capacity to cope with
climate change;
(b) To assess the current status of communication of climate alert
information to the user communities in different Regions, and
recommend ways and means of improving dissemination, in
collaboration with CCl, where appropriate;
(c) To summarize the status of preparedness and coping strategies as
well as the impacts on sustainable agriculture and translate into
user-friendly language;
(d) To review the strengths and weaknesses of existing provisions in
the national climate policies related to climate extremes impacting
on agriculture, and
(e) To submit reports in accordance with timetables established by
the OPAG and/or the MG.
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4.1 Joint Expert Team with JCOMM on Weather, Climate and Fisheries
(a) To review the current data collection by JCOMM on marine
meteorology, to assess how these data meet the current needs of the
sustainable management in fisheries, and, as appropriate, encourage
and assist fisheries vessels to make and report relevant marine
meteorological and ocean observations to the WMO system;
(b) To review the effects of climate and climate variability on
seasonal to decadal time scales on oceanic fisheries;
(c) To review the current climate change impacts and evaluate the
impact of future climate change on oceanic fisheries;
(d) To identify risk assessment or management evaluation tools that
incorporate climate variability in order to improve the sustainable
management of coastal and oceanic
fisheries;
(e) To review the effects of agricultural practices on coastal
fisheries;
(f) To submit reports in accordance with timetables established by
the OPAG and/or MG of CAgM/JCOMM.
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