Weather centre project to reduce farm risks
Published:Wednesday | August 18, 2010 | 12:00 AM
A project is on the drawing board to install weather stations at several locations across Jamaica, and train persons to use them, with the aim of providing early warning to farmers and planning authorities on impending storms, floods and droughts.
The Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) are to be set up in six traditional banana producing areas of St Mary, Portland, St Thomas, Clarendon, St James and St Catherine.
These parishes have a total of 59,000 registered farmers.
The project is being funded under the European Union Banana Support Programme (EUBSP) being managed and implemented by the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA), an agency of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries.
Real time access
Director of planning and evaluation at RADA and EUBSP coordinator, Shaun Baugh said once installed, the weather centres will ensure real time access and viewing of weather data from the selected areas.
"The AWS are multifunctional units equipped with all the sensors required for remotely monitoring the weather conditions of an area," Baugh told Wednesday Business.
"Most machines currently on the market provide basic information such as pressure, temperature and humidity, rainfall intensity, wind speed and direction and solar radiation. These stations have the benefit of being able to be monitored remotely. Weather data can be accessed whenever needed."
The project will also involve the installation of additional data sensors including those to measure soil moisture, and will likely aid the process of developing a weather-related risk insurance system for the local agriculture sector.
The tender process is under way to identify a supplier of the equipment. Bids close September 27, with installation and training to run for four months after the signing of a supply contract.
"These AWS units could form part of the network of stations available in the agricultural areas and (be) part of the adaptation mechanism (to deal with) the occurrence of severe and sometimes disastrous weather conditions," said Baugh.
The prediction of drought conditions before they occur will significantly enhance planning within the agricultural sector, he said.
The installations will also serve as part of an early warning system on flooding for community disaster management and planning.
According to Baugh, a functioning, robust meteorological database will pay for itself many times over. He said this stems from its ability to allow for easy storage, retrieval and processing of meteorological data for several uses, including research in the farm sector.