Open AccessWeather and climate monitoring for food risk management
Author(s) -
Maracchi Giampiero,
Capecchi Valerio,
Marta Anna Dalla,
Orlandini Simone
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
meteorological applications
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.672
H-Index - 59
eISSN - 1469-8080
pISSN - 1350-4827
DOI - 10.1017/s1350482706002556
Subject(s) - environmental science , extreme weather , arid , agriculture , food insecurity , climate change , poverty , natural resource economics , climatology , meteorology , environmental resource management , geography , food security , economics , ecology , archaeology , geology , economic growth , biology
Food insecurity represents one of the main indicators of the poverty level of a country and can breed a strong dependence on foreign aid with a strong slowdown of the national economy. African arid and semi‐arid areas are characterised by food precariousness and their agricultural activity is strongly dependent on the extreme climatic conditions that affect the available water supply. This situation has led to the need to develop new tools for the prediction and the management of crisis. The characterisation of climate and the identification of anomalies, the monitoring of weather conditions and their influence on crops, short and medium range weather forecasts and long‐term climate predictions are among the most powerful tools to predict, in as short a time as possible, crises due to the absence or delay of rainfall season. Meteorological information can also be used as an input to agrometeorological models applied for crisis prevention or for its management during the growing season when the crops are already present. In this paper, a review of these tools is made and some operational products presented. Copyright © 2006 Royal Meteorological Society