Agrometeorology Team Validates Seasonal Information to Strengthen Early Warning for Farmers
Bond Matsiko
Kawanda, Uganda | 11 August 2026
— The Agrometeorology Team under the Uganda Climate Smart Agricultural
Transformation Project (UCSATP), led by Dr. Komutunga, is
today conducting a validation workshop to assess climatic information collected
from 69 districts where the project is being implemented.
The workshop, taking place at the FBA
Conference Hall at the National Agricultural Research Laboratories (NARL),
Kawanda, brings together participants drawn from different parts of
Uganda to validate the seasonal characteristics of their respective regions.
The information being validated was obtained
during a recently concluded UCSATP field activity undertaken across the
project's 69 implementation districts. The field exercise sought to obtain
local climatic information and seasonal characteristics that can complement
scientific agrometeorological data and contribute to the development of
reliable early warning information for farmers.
During today's validation exercise, participants
are randomly selected by Angela Kisakye, an Apprentice Agrometeorologist,
to provide information on the seasons in the regions from which they originate.
Their responses are being compared with the climatic information collected
during the field activity and the technical outputs generated by the
Agrometeorology Team.
The validation process provides an opportunity to
identify areas of agreement, inconsistencies and gaps between locally observed
seasonal patterns and the information generated through technical analysis.
This is intended to improve the accuracy and local relevance of
agrometeorological information before it is disseminated to agricultural
stakeholders.
The exercise is particularly important for
UCSATP's efforts to strengthen early warning and climate information
services for agriculture. Reliable information on seasonal rainfall
patterns, including the timing of rainfall onset, distribution and cessation,
can support farmers in making critical decisions on land preparation, planting,
crop management and harvesting.
Uganda's diverse climatic conditions mean that
seasonal patterns can vary considerably from one region to another. Capturing
and validating information from the project's 69 implementation districts
therefore provides an important evidence base for developing location-specific
climate information and agricultural advisories.
The validation workshop is consequently serving
as a quality-assurance stage in the development of UCSATP's agrometeorological
outputs. By bringing together technical analysis and information obtained from
communities and stakeholders familiar with local seasonal conditions, the
Agrometeorology Team seeks to ensure that the resulting early warning products
are scientifically robust, locally relevant and useful to farmers.
The activity contributes to the broader UCSATP
objective of strengthening climate-smart agricultural practices and building
the capacity of farmers and agricultural stakeholders to anticipate and respond
to climate-related risks.
The validated information will inform the
refinement of agrometeorological outputs and early warning products intended to
support climate-resilient agricultural planning across the 69 UCSATP
implementation districts.
