IBIMET
             Building resilience to drought in the
             Sahel through early risk identification



             Early warning systems are a fundamental component in preventing and managing food crises
             in the Sahel. While there are a number of tools and models that allow for near-real-time
             monitoring of the crop season, those in the Sahel region are often outdated and obsolete,
             hindering yield gains and putting populations at greater risk of food shortages.
             In an effort to address this, the Institute of Biometeorology of the National Research Council
CONTEXT




             (IBIMET–CNR) co-designed and co-developed an open source crop risk zone monitoring system
             called 4Crop, along with the national meteorological services of Mali and Niger. The tool, which
             uses open source meteorological satellite data sets, offers decision-makers and interested
             stakeholders a long-term and sustainable solution in accessing risk information.
             Based on the Crop Risk Zone (CRZ) agro-meteorological model, the newly built open source
             web application allows national Early Warning Systems to better detect seeding failures, and
             to monitor state of crops throughout their growth cycle.
HIGHLIGHTS




              Held user consultations with       Developed an open source          Incorporated traditional local
              the National Meteorological           crop monitoring web           knowledge of weather patterns
               Services of Niger and Mali.     application for Sahel countries.        into the application.
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             In order to overcome the problems associated with early warning software programs, the team opted
             for a web-based application. Through a two-part consultative process, IBIMET developed the application
             alongside key beneficiaries. First, the team submitted questionnaires to the targeted users of Niger and Mali
APPROACH




             meteorological services in order to understand their user experience with current tools. The results of this
             initial step guided the design phase of the new web infrastructure. Secondly, the team tested wireframes and
             prototypes with specified users, and shared mockups of the web application. Moreover, targeted training was
             provided to decision makers to better understanding the overall system, in addition to performing analysis of
             crop conditions.



                “4Crop strengthens our capacity to monitor agricultural campaigns, and early identify
               crop-risk-zones. Thus National Food Security Authority can implement effective actions
                             to improve resilience of farmers and mitigate food crises.”
                                 - Labo Moussa, Director of Niger Meteorological Service



             Currently, the 4Crop system is a web application directly available for defined user profiles. By moving the
             application to a web-page, users can have easier access to the tool, in addition to training manuals and
NEXT STEPS




             diagnostics.

             There will also be greater efforts to disseminate drought risk information derived from the tool widely to
             national and local stakeholders. Currently, the team are looking at developing agro-climate information
             products for farmers in order to improve their resilience against food insecurity.




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