Further identification of two agrometeorological services in Ningxia autonomous region, western China

By KEES STIGTER

(In order to survive) so many lofty structures have snaked
across our dark soil and over our barren mountains

From Zhang Wei’s “The ancient ship”

FURTHER IDENTIFICATION OF TWO AGROMETEOROLOGICAL SERVICES IN NINGXIA AUTONOMOUS REGION, WESTERN CHINA

Kees Stigter1), Liu Jing2), Zheng Dawei3), Ma Yuping4), Wang Shili5)

1) Agromet Vision, Bondowoso, Indonesia & Bruchem, The Netherlands (cjstigter@usa.net)

2) Ningxia Provincial Meteorological Administration, Yinchuan, Ningxia, China (ahmd_liujing@163.com)

3) Department of Agrometeorology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China (zhengdawei44@263.net)

4)Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, China Meteorological Administration, Beijing, China (mayp@cams.cma.gov.cn)

5) Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, China Meteorological Administration, Beijing, China (wangsl@cams.cma.gov.cn)

Introduction

The present project, core funded by the China Meteorological Administration (CMA), was prepared by the Asian Picnic Model Project (APMP, Agromet Vision) and China Agricultural University (CAU), Beijing, from 2004 till 2007 in several missions to five provinces. In the APMP, capacity building is the main issue and all preparations, all transfer of knowledge and all teaching takes initially place in the Asian country where the project is based. Approaches can be found in the literature quoted most recently in KNMI (2006, rev. 2008).

In September 2008 we travelled from Linhe (Inner Mongolia) to Yinchuan, the capital of Ningxia, where we had been three times before to prepare this identification of best examples of agrometeorological services. We are here dealing with the earlier widely discussed “CMA/CAU/APMP Agrometeorological Services Case Study III” (in short CCAAS Case Study III), “Improving microclimate for water melon by covering sandy soil with pebbles” and “CMA/CAU/APMP Agrometeorological Services Case Study IV” (in short CCAAS Case Study IV) entitled “Forecasting fungus disease conditions for wolfberries”, that figure both in earlier mission reports by Stigter and with which great progress has been made. The first one was already preliminarily reported on (Stigter, 2006; 2008a). Target groups are farmers in the two respective farming systems. A recent Chinese report with a diagram and photographs was presented and discussed.

Some details have become clearer now in discussions we had with some researchers through the Ningxia Provincial Meteorological Administration/ Bureau/Office/Services. We had for example a more than an hour long discussion on the use of plastic strips over the places of sowing. On our long journeys to and again south from Zhongwei, itself 200 km south of Yinchuan, we were now shown even much larger areas with the system than before, really kilometer after kilometer in this mountainous region. During the Olympics, twenty thousand additional tons of water melons have been sold. There is a risk of over-production in the following years.

As to the wolfberry (Lycium barbarum L.) trees that you see grown in large quantities, also in our journeys to and from Zhongwei, often protected by nets against birds, they suffer from Anthracnose, a fungus disease. The Ningxia Provincial Meteorological Administration has done many experiments now in which the conditions of the outbreak of the fungus were studied. They are in a Chinese report with some English (Abstract, Tables. Graphs) (Liu, 2008). The work on the best fungicide to be used has also been done by the group of Liu Jing.

Improving microclimate for water melon by covering sandy soil with pebbles

As hinted at above, Stigter (2006; 2008a) has described and discussed the example of water melons grown in an improved microclimate created by covering sandy soil with eight to ten cm of pebbles collected from river beds at several occasions before, explaining the wind erosion protection, the soil surface evaporation prevention and the warming of the seed bed so created.

It should firstly become clear that most of the few rains fall in autumn (as we experienced ourselves abundantly these days). The pebbles protect against evaporation of this water for use in early spring sowing. Without the pebbles, the soil could be dry till half a meter depth in spring! It appears that the seeds are brought into holes in the layer of pebbles that remain a cavity, over which plastic is brought by some farmers. It has been measured that at the bottom of such covered cavities the soil surface temperatures can be in the order of five degrees higher than at the pebble surface, particularly at night. Because of the importance of early sowing due to the length of the growing season, this can be an essential frost protection issue of the method. The plastic can protect the seeds and seedlings against frost in the early days, but it is not applied by all farmers, determined also by the location.

It also appears that the sowing and replacement of (in)organic fertilizer is done by making a groove and bringing the pebbles back everywhere else but not in the sowing cavity. Over the years, this and the weight of the pebbles has the soil and pebbles mixing, which makes the system deteriorate in about ten years. It must then either be renewed or replaced by growing Chinese date trees, which has already been successfully done in the area. To get the system re-fertilized, also irrigation water (distributed by tractor) with inorganic fertilizers is used.

In Stigter’s categorization of agrometeorological services, as for example used in his Souvenir Paper for a meeting in Hyderabad (Stigter, 2008b) and in his recent draft WMO brochure (Stigter, 2008a), this “CCAAS Case Study III” example belongs to the category “Advices such as in design rules on above and below ground microclimate management or manipulation (B)”. Of course it is also an example of reducing the impacts and mitigating the consequences of drought and dry winds and therefore touches on category D (“Measures reducing the impacts and mitigating the consequences of weather and climate related natural disasters”) as well.

So again a double category example due to the way they are built up. The service is really life bringing in an area that would otherwise be too dry to grow anything (about 175 mm of rainfall, mainly in autumn). A lesson learned here is the value of paying attention to farmer innovations also in agrometeorology (e.g. Stigter, 2007). Farmer innovations and other results from farmer experiments have the largest chance of spontaneous dissemination (e.g. Stigter, 2008d). The farmers in this area were threatened with migration to areas with better irrigation facilities. However, the system they developed made it possible for them to stay and earn a living from water melons grown in an improved microclimate with high water use efficiency that they created with simple but laborious means.

Forecasting fungus disease conditions for wolfberries

Although wolfberry is harvested throughout the growing season that the fruits appear, in the period mid June to July inclusive the harvest is most abundant and 70% or more is collected during that period. The determination and forecasting of the suitable conditions of the disease is therefore most important during that period. For example over 40 mm of rain is such a condition. Other conditions for severe occurrence of Anthracnose have to do with numbers of rain days, relative humidity above 90%, rainfall for over 12 hours and an average daily temperature over 22 °C respectively, under which germination of the fungus is very high. In later periods, the labour is often too expensive for further harvesting and the fruits are left on the trees.

In Stigter’s categorization of agrometeorological services (e.g. Stigter, 2008a; 2008b), this “CCAAS Case Study IV” example therefore could be seen as from the category “Monitoring and early warning exercises directly connected to measures reducing the impacts and mitigating the consequences of weather and climate related natural disasters (D)”, if you consider the fungus disease such a disaster and spraying the related measure. However, we are more inclined to bring it under “Specific weather forecasts for agriculture, including warnings for suitable conditions for pests and diseases (H)”.

If the period before and during the peak of the harvest is rather dry, the infestation is often low and no warnings are issued. In 2006, a serious outbreak was forecasted and spraying saved a lot of the crop for which the prices became excellent. As already indicated above, the work on the best fungicide to be used has also been done by the group of Liu Jing. One of the lessons taught here therefore is the importance of research supporting and geared to the solution of farmers’ problems, that push the research efforts. This is in line with what Stigter proposed in his policy paper for the 50th anniversary of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) in October last year (Stigter, 2008e).

So, this is a good example of the importance of supportive applied research from which the (agro)meteorological criteria/indexes for occurrence of the disease have been derived. This is also comparable to the work on track in India (e.g. Stigter with Rathore, 2008). In Stigter’s lecture on Sunday 28 September, on “Institutionalization of extension to cope with natural disasters”, adapted for the audiences of this mission where he has been giving three lectures at earlier occasions, he again also emphasized these points.

Acknowledgements

The preliminary account given in the information sheet above has largely been derived from a first part of a draft of Prof. Stigter’s recent mission report (Stigter, 2008c) on his September/October mission to China. Using the English language, in which most of the co-authors are not or less conversant, while he is not conversant with the Chinese language, any errors are his responsibility. Prof. Zheng Dawei is the skilled intermediate and translator for Stigter’s work in China since 1999. The Chinese Meteorological Administration (Beijing) is acknowledged for the core funding of the present pilot project. The Provincial Meteorological Administrations concerned are thankfully mentioned for their organizational efforts to make the more detailed identification of these agrometeorological services possible. Their great hospitality made the tiring travel more than worthwhile.

References

Liu, Jing, 2008. Research on effect of meteorological environment on germination and expansion of anthracnose of Lycium barbarum L. in Ningxia Autonomous Region. Ningxia Provincial Meteorological Administration, Yinchuan (in Chinese with English Abstract, graphs and tables).

KNMI for Netherlands Government (compiled by Kees Stigter), 2006 (Rev. 2008). Capacity building in the area of agrometeorological services through roving seminars. Document originally distributed and presented as CAgM-XIV/INF. 4 at the XIVth Session of the WMO CAgM, New Delhi, October/November.

Stigter, Kees, 2006. Agrometeorological services in various parts of the world, under conditions of a changing climate. Austin Bourke Memorial Lecture presented in the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, in the evening of 2 March. Extended Abstract available on the INSAM website under “Accounts of Operational Agrometeorology” of March 2006.

Stigter, Kees, 2007. Agrometeorological services to prepare farmers for climate extremes and climate use. Invited paper presented under “Agrometeorology and Sustainable Development” at the XVth Congress of the Brazilian Society for Agrometeorology, Aracaju, Brazil. Invited paper. Revista Brasileira de Agrometeorologia 15, 202-207.

Stigter, Kees, 2008a. Agrometeorological services: reaching all farmers with operational information products in new educational commitments. Draft brochure written for WMO/CAgM, 26 pp.

Stigter, Kees, 2008b. Operational agrometeorology: problems and perspectives.

Invited contribution (Souvenir Paper) to a Souvenir Booklet for an International Meeting on Agrometeorology and Food Security. CRIDA, Hyderabad, India, pp. 41 – 47.

Stigter, Kees, 2008c. Report of a fourth "Agromet Vision" mission to Asia: China, Indonesia, 15 September 2008 till 30 April 2009. First part on China. Agromet Vision, Bondowoso (Indonesia) and Bruchem (Netherlands), 28 pp.

Stigter, Kees, 2008d. Policy support for capacity building in weather and climate services focused on agriculture. Based on a presentation at a Management Group Meeting of WMO/CAgM in Obninsk, Russian Federation, on June 12th. Journal of Agrometeorology (India), in press.

Stigter, 2008e. Agrometeorology from science to extension: Assessment of needs and provision of services. A Review. Agric. Ecosyst. Environm. 126: 153-157.

Stigter, Kees with Rathore, L.S., 2008. How to organize coping with crop disease risks of farmers in poor countries. Paper presented at an Asian Pacific Network (APN) project meeting in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on 12 February. Available at the INSAM website under “Needs for agrometeorological solutions to farming problems” in February.