Recent identification of two agrometeorological services in inner Mongolia autonomous region, northern China

By KEES STIGTER

Confucius once said that you can do whatever
you please so long as you don’t transgress

From Zhang Wei’s “The ancient ship”

RECENT IDENTIFICATION OF TWO AGROMETEOROLOGICAL SERVICES IN INNER MONGOLIA AUTONOMOUS REGION, NORTHERN CHINA

Kees Stigter1), Niu Baoliang2), Yang Song3), Hou Qiong4),

Zheng Dawei5), Ma Yuping6), Wang Shili7)

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

2) Xing’anmeng Sub-Provincial Meteorological Administration, Wulanhaote, Inner Mongolia, China

3) Bayabnaoemeng Sub-Provincial Meteorological Administration, Linhe, Inner Mongolia, China

4) Huhhohaote Provincial Meteorological Administration, Huhhohaote, Inner Mongolia, China

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

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

7) 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).

The first case study in this project was identified in detail in the field in September 2008 from Wulanhaote (northeast Inner Mongolia) while visiting the Xing’anmeng Sub-Provincial Meteorological Administration/Bureau/Offices/Services. It is a computer model forming an “Advisory and service system of crop and variety planning in Xing’anmeng” (“CMA/CAU/APMP Agrometeorological Service Case Study I”, in short CCAAS Case Study I). The target groups are all crop farmers in the Sub-Province.

We visited on the second day an experiment station where data were collected on a range of varieties regarding lengths of their growing season and thermal time needed for their optimal performance. In addition work was done there on crop growth in simple green houses, growing and use of animal fodder and influences on crops of the use of various sprays.

We also visited a Sub-County Office that had the model on its computers and was able to give advisories at all levels, from village to government, on varieties suitable for given conditions. They regularly trained extension people, till the level of village technician, in using the model and/or asking the right questions for use of the model. The role of farmer technicians, progressive farmers that can demonstrate other farmers the use of varieties, appears important at the lowest levels.

Subsequently we travelled to Linhe in Bayabnaoemeng Sub-Province. The “CMA/CAU/APMP Agrometeorological Services Case Study II” (in short CCAAS Case Study II), that we collected here, was on “Sowing advice for spring wheat depending on the frost melting condition in the autumn irrigated top soil in Bayabnaoemeng”. The target group is here all spring wheat farmers in the Sub-Province.

We had a long discussion with a county officer, the head of a sub-county meteorological station and some farmers of sub-county villages. The station reports the meteorological data on which the local advices must be built as well as information on the actual soil conditions from February onwards. Broadcasting of sowing advices is via television programmes received here mostly by cable, rural radio, rural community radio, and SMS messages, that are becoming more and more popular.

This latter channel of information flow appears to work well because the reception of such (short) messages is related to the small payment made for the mobile telephones by each farmer in the months in which this is important. We then visited a New Countryside model village with a broadcasting centre, from where among others the advisory service on spring wheat sowing is disseminated and a Village Community Center where, again among others, this is received and broadcasted and/or disseminated otherwise.

Advisory and service system of crop and variety planning in Xing’anmeng

This “CCAAS Case study I” consists of a computer model in which information is stored on suitable varieties of a range of locally important crops (e.g. maize, sorghum, millet, Chili peppers, pumpkin, potatoes) as a function of degree days needed for best performance during very often very short growing seasons. Frost free days go from 80 to 160. The input is meteorological (long term temperature data), agronomical (varieties, irrigation/non-irrigation, eventually soil, where important) and geographical (altitude, latitude, south slope, north slope).

The Sub-Province has roughly a 1000m difference between places where crops are grown and, together with latitude and slope, this makes thermal time the most important factor governing the performance of crops under the availability of sufficient soil moisture. County wise storage of data for each crop shows maps of varieties very suitable, suitable and non-suitable in villages of the Sub-Province, based on the data of the model.

The model is regularly updated with new information. It works with thirty years (1970 – 2000) climatological normals, but is in the process of adapting to meteorological data of the past decade. New agronomical information is regularly taken into account. It is clear form the above that reliable meteorological and agronomical data are the crux of the matter in addition to the given geographical conditions of agricultural fields/plots.

We want to use in this identification Stigter’s categorization of agrometeorological services, as for example used in his Souvenir Paper for a meeting in Hyderabad (Stigter, 2008a) and in his recent draft WMO brochure (Stigter, 2008b). This “CCAAS Case Study I” example combines “Agrometeorological characterization products, such as in zoning and mapping (A)” with “Measures reducing the impacts and mitigating the consequences of weather and climate related natural disasters (D)”. Disasters here relate mainly to low temperatures (determining also frost free days, lengths of the growing seasons).

Stigter (2008c) formulated some lessons from each individual agrometeorological service case study recently (further) identified in China. First lessons to be learned here indeed are the necessity of a strong co-operation of meteorological and agronomical offices to combine trustable data (see also arguments from Lomas repeated by Stigter (2003)), and the importance of the art of reaching farmers with the information available/needed in the cascade system from Provincial Level, Sub-Provincial Level, County Level and Township Level to Village Level. At the lower levels, extension officers and village technicians must play an important role (see also Stigter et al., 2007). This should be compared with a system of Climate Field Schools as developed elsewhere in Asia (Winarto et al., 2008).

The “CCAAS Case Study I” also illustrates the regional character of agrometeorological services of this kind, because it are the special geographical conditions of the Sub-Province that have necessitated the development of this service (see also Stigter, 2008d; 2008e).

This was a nice conclusion related to the introduction of the lecture “Agrometeorological services in various parts of the world under conditions of a changing climate”, that Stigter gave at the end of our visit to Wulanhaote for one and a half hour. He also treated there the three phases of which our pilot project proposals were made up.

Sowing advice for spring wheat depending on the frost melting condition in the autumn irrigated top soil in Bayabnaoemeng

An essential issue here is the necessity for the region of pre-frost autumn irrigation as the source of water for the spring wheat after melting of the frozen soils in spring. We saw this irrigation in full swing along the road. A problem is the late notification of farmers that water will be made available. In spring, working the soil before sowing and the early sowing itself are badly dependent on the top soil conditions.

As indicated already above, the meteorological data on which the local advices must be built as well as information on the actual soil conditions are reported from February onwards. This is related to soil measurements (depth of frost, speed of temperature rise correlated to rising of air temperatures) done at meteorological stations as well as reported field observations on top soil conditions.

A meteorological study was made in which a regression formula was derived for determination of the most suitable sowing date from several parameters depending on temperatures and humidities in certain (pre-winter) seasonal periods. A team of four people prepares the basic advices. This represents Stigter’s F-category (Stigter, 2008a; 2008b, see also below) as an example of climate predictions.

The advices are spread by reports to the government, connections with other departments (Agronomy, Engineering/Machinery etc.) and field meetings at various levels that include extension officers and farmers in the same cascade system described already above. If serious adaptations are necessary, the television/radio/SMS system is used as also indicated above. This represents Stigter’s C-category (Stigter, 2008a; 2008b, see also below) as an advisory based on response farming.

This “CCAAS Case Study II” is an example of response farming where an advisory on the earliest possible sowing date is required to have good wheat yields but too early sowing can destroy seeds/seedlings. In Stigter’s categorization of agrometeorological services (Stigter, 2008a; 2008b) this “CCAAS Case Study II” example therefore belongs to the category “Advisories based on the outcome of response farming exercises (C)”, like the prize winning “frost forecast” example of Mrs. Wei Yurong (Huhhohot) in last year’s INSAM contest (Wei, 2008; Stigter, 2008b). At the same time, basically a type of meteorological forecast is involved, where it touches on the category of “Climate predictions and meteorological forecasts (F)”. This becomes of the C-type when actual in-season observations are used for corrections of general average forecasts of the developed model.

Stigter (2008d) recently wrote: “Response farming was in this paper so far limited to rainfall events, but coping with weather and climate (and related soil) disasters (e.g. Rathore and Stigter, 2007) as well as using windows of weather and climate (and often soil) opportunities are other forms of responding to weather and climate (and often soil) realities”. We have an example here.

Hot strong winds later in the season are also a climate related disaster and so are (possibly global warming related) increasing occurrences of plant diseases and pests. They experiment with sprayings to fight these ills. We also discussed with them another related service, that on the occurrence of a late devastating frost after sowing. Again farmers are advised by all communication means to produce smoke, burn straw for heating and use it for protection etc., and this way overcome the night frost.

This is in line with the reporting of Mrs. Wei Yurong (Wei, 2008; Stigter, 2008b) in her third prize winning submission for the most recent INSAM contest on frost warnings in Inner Mongolia. When asked, the farmers indicated that in a recent case the differences in damage/final yield were very clear between fields in which this was applied (one hour before minimum temperatures, so very early in the morning) and fields where it was not applied.

Lessons learned are that, where possible, Services should collaborate to use the agrometeorological service that can best be organized by the government. Corrections as a form of response farming are necessary (see above), applied research can help in increasing the efficiency of the service (see also Stigter, 2008e). This also shows that such examples belong to more than one category due to the way they are built up. Indeed, response farming appears necessary in which actual conditions are followed for updating of the preliminary advices given earlier. This is further worked on now. Resilience should be increased from such work (Winarto et al., 2008).

In Stigter’s lecture, that he adapted for five quarters of an hour from the one given in Wulanhaote, he tried to directly connect some of the things we saw and heard with the three phases of our project, with which he now started. He also emphasized points in his collected examples of agrometeorological services, emphasizing the Mali Pilot Projects response farming ones. They bear a lot of resemblance (communications between a multidisciplinary team and farmers, using intermediaries, adaptation to the ongoing season, collection of input data) to the set up of this “CCAAS Case Study II”.

This was again a very successful case study, showing the importance of organizing power that appears abundantly available in China when properly mobilized. The feedback from farmers may for the time being remain a problem, because of too many steps, but was basically possible, as our discussions with selected farmers showed. This feedback has to be systematically organized. That is another lesson learned.

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

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.

Rathore L.S. and C.J. Stigter, 2007. Challenges to coping strategies with agrometeorological risks and uncertainties- Regional Perspectives: Asia. In: M.V.K. Sivakumar and R. Motha (eds), Managing weather and climate risks in agriculture. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg (pp. 53-69).

Stigter, Kees, 2003. The future of education, training and extension in agricultural meteorology: a new approach. In: Zheng Dawei et al. (Eds.), The Future of Education and Training in Agrometeorology in China, Proceedings of a Workshop, Beijing.

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

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Stigter, Kees, 2008d. Agrometeorological services under a changing climate: old wine in new bags. WMO Bulletin 57(2): 114-117.

Stigter, Kees, 2008e. Coping with climate risks in agriculture needs farmer oriented research and extension policies. Scientia Agricola (Piracicaba, Brazil), 65 (special issue), 9 pp. (seen the printing proofs in November).

Stigter, C.J., Tan Ying, H.P. Das, Zheng Dawei, R.E. Rivero Vega, Nguyen van Viet, N.I. Bakheit and Y.M. Abdullahi, 2007. Complying with farmers' conditions and needs using new weather and climate information approaches and technologies. In: M.V.K. Sivakumar and R. Motha (eds), Managing weather and climate risks in agriculture. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg (pp. 171-190).

Wei, Yurong, 2008. Frost Forecast Service of Inner Mongolia in 2007. Available at the INSAM website under “Accounts of Operational Agrometeorology” of 17 April as winner of third prize.

Winarto, Yunita T., Kees Stigter, Esti Anantasari and Siti Nur Hidayah, 2008. Climate Field Schools in Indonesia: coping with climate change and beyond. Low External Input Sustainable Agriculture (LEISA) Magazine, 24 (4), accepted for publication.