Farmers from the Balés region in Burkina Faso participated in a training session on the installation and use of farmer rain gauges
The session was conducted by teams from the Burkinabe Red Cross (CRBF) and the National Meteorological Agency of Burkina Faso (ANAM). This initiative, mandated by the Hydromet Burkina Faso project, aims to teach the use of this simple tool, and to enable the people trained to benefit their communities.
The objective of these sessions is to build community capacity to use meteorological and agrometeorological instruments and help communities identify the agroclimatic profile of their province to effectively determine the start and end dates of the rainy season. This method helps determine which inputs are best suited to their specific context. Training sessions have been held in the Central Plateau region of Burkina Faso in Boussé, Ziniaré, and Zorgho, as well as in Gaoua (Poni, Diebougou, Noumbiel, and Ioba), Dedougou Boromo, Manga and Koudougou.
Burkina Faso's recorded climate events are becoming increasingly unpredictable, frequent and intense. Besides having significant impacts on the lives and livelihoods of rural communities, the hardest-hit communities are also forcibly displaced by the impacts. Burkina Faso received financing from the World Bank Group and the Green Climate Fund under the Strengthening Climate Resilience Project (Hydromet) to address this situation. With a total budget of US$33mn, the project aims to help beneficiaries adapt their lifestyles and livelihoods to a changing climate to protect themselves against the increasing risk of climate-related disasters.
To improve the delivery of hydrometeorological services to end users, the Burkina Faso Hydromet Project, in collaboration with the National Meteorological Agency, acquired and distributed 9,700 rain gauges to farmers nationwide. A rain gauge is an instrument that measures rainfall at a given point. It measures the amount of rain that falls in an area over a period of time. The Hydromet Project will therefore help improve the reliability of weather forecasts by providing various types of support to the National Meteorological Agency, the General Directorate for Water Resources, and the Early Warning System in the Ministry of Agriculture.
Boosting agri practices with innovative weather tools
This initiative aims to teach the use of this simple tool, and to enable the people trained to benefit their communities. (Image source: Burkina Faso Hydromet Project)
