Under a UNITAR-funded Centre executed project, regional meteorological officers were trained to:
- carry out statistical analyses on regional weather data and
- use these outputs to be in a better position to warn the farming community of oncoming conditions for their operations.
It is envisaged that this would allow the farming community to make the necessary operational adjustments and avoid the usual experience of loss of investment and livelihoods.
In addition to the training, eleven automatic agrometerological Stations (weather stations) were installed at the Caribbean Agriculture Research and Development Institute’s (CARDI)’s premises in ten Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries: Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados, Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Jamaica and Belize.
This network of weather stations has tremendously boosted CARDI’s research capability, which is highly dependent on its ability to constantly measure and monitor critical weather parameters.
In addition to the provision of the agrometeorological stations UNITAR support to CARDI through the Centre has helped in enhancing CARDI’s capacity to carry out impact studies on the sector using biophysical models coupled with Climate Change scenarios generated from the regional climate modeling exercises in the region. This places the region in a position to take proactive action to avoid deleterious consequences which are projected to be experienced in the agriculture sector as a result of Climate Change.
