Climate Field School

Climate Field School (CFS) is one of BMKG yearly program has been established since 2007 until present day. In general, the CFS objective is to anticipate climate extreme by improving the farmers insight of BMKG’s climate & weather information and use the information for agriculture activity.  In the early days, the CFS is focusing on rice farming. Rice is the majority of Indonesian main source of food. Therefore, the productivity & stability of rice production is one of the government of Indonesia’s main concern. However, in 2016, Ministry of Agriculture recorded from 8.2 million hectare of wetland, the ratio between irrigated and non-irrigated (mostly rain-fed) paddy field (wetland) is: 6:4. Its mean that there are 3.4 million hectare of wetland still depend on rain-fed as the main source of water.

At this point, the rain-fed wetland is depend on precise climate information,  especially for on-set seasonal information to confirm when the planting time should be started. Before 1956, Javanese farmer using indigenous knowledge of Planting Calendar called “Pranata Mangsa”, and after 1956 king of Surakarta (Pakubuwana IV) started to formalized the information.

However, the anthropogenic climate change has drastically change the climate pattern for the last 60 years. It also disrupt seasonal pattern in Indonesia that the climate forcing constructed from various kind of global & regional climate variability such as ENSO (El-Nino/La-Nina), Monsoon, Madden-Julian Oscillation,  Dipole Mode or Inter Tropical Convergence Zone. Therefore, the climatological statistic founds that “the new normal” has been more developed since then and the climate seasonal variability has been more various each years and leads to whether its extending dry or wet seasons. For example, several strong El-Nino has occurred (e.g. 1982-1983, 1997-1998,  2015-2016) and causing long drought and leads to crops fail all around Indonesia. In the future projections, the extreme ENSO more likely will be more frequent than the present day.

The modern science era to collect climatological data has been established in Indonesia since early meteorology & geophysics agency has been founded in 1866 by the Dutch East Indies. However, the operational of climate prediction product just actively being produced and published recently. The current challenge is, how these kind of information are effectively and widely used by the end users like Farmers or Plantation. As previously mentioned that rain-fed paddy field are very sensitive to seasonal variability, especially on water sufficiency. The seasonal variability also affect on pest development and varies in different landscape.

History

Back to 1989, the first group of Farmer Field Schools (FFS) were conducted in the rice fields of Indonesia and involved 200 FFSs in four districts of Yogyakarta. These were initiated by the Indonesian National Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Programme with funds from the Government of Indonesia – United States Agency for International Development (GoI-USAID) and technical assistance from FAO. By 1990, the Indonesian National IPM Programme scaled up and launched over 1,800 FFSs for rice IPM in six provinces in Java, Sumatra and South Sulawesi. In 1991, the pilot FFSs in IPM for rotation crops (mainly soybeans) was initiated while the FFS Programme was used in different countries in Asia [1]. This is how the “embryo” of Field School formed. The FFS is particularly suited and specifically developed for field studies, where hands-on management skills and conceptual understanding (based on non-formal adult education principles) is required.

The Climate Field School were formulated for experiments in 2005 and 2006, starting in Indramayu, West Java, by the Directorate General of Food Crops (Ministry of Agriculture, Jakarta), the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC, Bangkok), BMKG (at the time the name is BMG: Agency for Meteorology and Geophysics), the Indonesian National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHS), and IPB (University of Agriculture, Bogor). The main general aim of such CFSs is to increase farmers’ knowledge on the application of climate information in their decision making [2].

Since 2007, BMKG started to conduct CFS using National Budget (APBN) at three province: Indramayu, Klaten & Purworejo, Maros & Minahasa Selatan, with  ASEAN CFS also conducted in Indramayu and subsequently many others follow (Marjuki, 2017). Between 2007 and 2012, 941 CFS courses with each 30 farmers each have been conducted, reaching a total of 28.230 farmers (Boeret al. 2003; 2004; Winartoet al. 2008; Subbiah 2006) [3].

Methodology

CFS proceeds in three stages. The first stage is training for trainers in which representatives from local government and regional office of MoA are trained to better understand the climate information provided by BMKG. In the second stage those trainees expected to directly deal with farmers receive further training. Both first and second stages last 4 days each. In the third stage trained extension workers deliver information to the farmers. This lasts 3-4 months, during which farmers adjust their planting calendar, plant and decide proper
inputs based on local climate characteristics (Florida, 2014).

CFS stages three usually takes place during one planting season (e.g. 3-4 months or 90-110 days depend on crop type and variety). The local farmer groups usually provide 0.5-2 hectares of land -so called demonstration plots / demoplot- and are divided into several plots. Each plot is usually treated differently (eg organic, non-organic, different types of variety, various pest control actions).

Every decadal/ten-days, the farmers, BMKG, and local ag. extension conduct meetings consists of: (1) agro-ecosystem observation. (2) discussion/group dynamics, and (3) specific session including:

1. Observation & Agro-ecosystem Analysis
2. Introduction to weather measuring instruments and simple measuring instruments
3. Introduction to weather & climate elements
4. The process of forming cloud and rain
5. Climate Classification & understanding of land water balance
6. Understanding the climate & seasonal information & prediction
7. Climate Extreme & anomaly

Sometimes there are additional material such as:

1. Effect of Weather / Climate on Pests and Plant Diseases
2. Indigenous Knowledge/Local Wisdom (e.g. Pranata Mangsa, Barige)
3. Climate Change
4. Pest Prevention & Control
5. Harverst & Post-harvest Management
6. Utilization of Weather/Climate Data for agriculture purposes
7. Utilization of Climate/Seasonal information for integrated crop calendar
8. Crop Yield measurement & analysis
9. Simple Analysis of Agriculture Business
10. Group Dynamics & Team Building

During 2017-2018 USAID-APIKs’ supported CFS of Corn at Konawe Selatan, Southeast Sulawesi, we also added following material:

1. Basic finance & micro-insurance literacy for farmer
2. Organic fertilization

General Summary on Climate Field Schools (BMKG/WMO) from WMO – OMM on Vimeo.

USAID-APIK Support

In March 13th 2017, USAID-APIK initiate Focus Group Discussion at BMKG to discuss the update, methodology and evaluation of Climate Field School. There are several notes including

Year 2017 is the first operational year of Climatology Station at Ranomeeto, Konawe Selatan, Sulawesi Tenggara Province. APIK support the station activity by strengthening the dissemination of climate information to the farmers. One of the pilot activity is the Climate Field School stage 3 for Paddy Field at Baruga Village, Kendari City starting from early July and harvested on October 16th 2017. Previously BMKG only conduct CFS stage 1 & 2 for government staffs & agriculture extension. USAID-APIK, BMKG, Agricultural Technology Research Center (BPTP), and Agriculture Agency working together to conduct learning by doing activity with farmers directly and they learn how weather & climate information can be used during planting season in specific demonstration plot.

In 2017-2018, USAID-APIK conduct CFS for Corn plant in Konawe Selatan. In East Java, with BMKG Malang, P3GI, and Malang District loval government, we made a breakthrough by conducting CFS stage 3 for Sugarcane plantation. Previously, BMKG Malang only conduct 2nd stage of CFS. Together with Wonokerto Village Community we learn how Climate & Weather Information can be useful for operational purposes of Sugarcane plantation including timing of plantation, timing of harvest, and plant care to control pest and disease. In the end, good agricultural practice with support of climate & weather information leads to increase productivity and crops resilience.

Critics & Evaluation

 

Future Potential Improvement