CPT, a timely and reliable climate tool for Honduran farmers
Faced with new weather patterns and climate variability, farmers in Honduras need to prepare for future weather conditions and climate change that could, potentially, disrupt current farming practices.
CIAT, through its Decision and Policy Analysis (DAPA) Research Area, trained representatives of different organizations in Honduras, including the Permanent Commission of Contingencies (COPECO), the National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH), the National Electric Power Company (ENEE), and the Civil Aviation, in the use of CPT (Climate Predictability Tool).
CPT is a software developed by the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) for building seasonal climate prediction models. “This tool is necessary for producers to have access to agroclimatic information (historical, monitoring, and predictions) in a timely and reliable manner, so they can implement effective mechanisms for communication and use of information,” says Lizeth Llanos, DAPA research assistant.
This training is one of the initiatives of the project Resilient Central America (ResCA), which works towards improving forecast methods and tools so that farmers can make better decisions about when to plant and thus be better prepared to cope with the climate.
In addition, this initiative also seeks to help researchers learn new and useful tools to generate seasonal climate predictions with updated and reliable data for farmers in Honduras.
This initiative is important in order to understand the CPT processes and thus make climate prediction. In addition, it helps us understand the scope that the tool has and to reinforce and learn important concepts for the production of climate predictions with a good level of certainty, which is very important for decision-making in the sectors of interest.
Jairo GarcíaSimilarly, Manuel Conde, a researcher from ENEE, added that “the use of the CPT tool is very important for our institution, as it will enable us to make predictions that will allow us to have a perspective on the weather conditions in the medium term. The deterministic values of this prediction will be a resource for a hydrological model that will serve in the energy planning and operation of our hydroelectric plants.”
With this training, the team seeks to engage entities such as COPECO to support the generation of agroclimatic prediction bulletins in Santa Rosa de Copán and Choluteca in Honduras, which will be the bridge to reach more farmers to make better informed decisions in terms of their crop production (water requirements in planting and the time of harvest, agricultural practices, crop/variety selection based on climate information).
More information
About the workshop: https://sites.google.com/view/copeco
About the project Agroclimatic Forecasting and Site-Specific Agriculture for Climate-Smart Agriculture: https://www.resilientcentralamerica.org/honduras-es/