Farming communities in Burkina Faso are improving their agricultural practices with innovative weather tools
- Since 2023, the Burkina Faso Water Transparency Project has supported the installation of 9,700 farmers’ rain gauges to help rural communities better manage their crop ages.
- With a total budget of $33 million, the five-year project aims to improve and make hydrology, climate and early warning services more accessible to targeted communities nationwide.
- A total of 9,700 beneficiaries were trained and the rainfall meter was provided by Burkinabe Red Cross and the Burkina Faso National Weather Service. These beneficiaries will serve as contacts and share knowledge and practices related to these tools with their communities.
Farmers from the Bals region of Burkina Faso, farmers participated in a training course on the installation and use of farmers’ rain scales. The meeting was conducted by the team of Burkinabe Red Cross (CRBF) and Burkina Faso (Anam) National Weather Service. The initiative, prescribed by the Hydromet Burkina Faso project, aims to teach the use of this simple tool and enable well-trained people to benefit the community.
“In the past, we were almost hit or missed in the village because when there was a little rain we sow seeds and often lost all of them. We were wasting time and energy and there was no reward in our field. But thanks to this Rain gauge, now we are sure we can use the collected water at the right time to get the seeds and get the results.
Training courses conducted across the country are designed to build community capabilities to use meteorological and agrometeorological tools. The purpose is to help communities determine the farmer climate profile in their provinces to effectively determine the starting point and end date of the rainy season. This method helps determine which inputs are best suited for their specific environment. Training courses have been held in the central plateau area of Burkina Faso, Ziniaré and Zorgho as well as Gaoua (Poni, Diebougou, Noumbiel and Ioba), Dedougou Boromo, Manga, Manga and Koudougou.
What role does the rain gauge play?
According to the World Meteorological Organization and UNESCO, the rain gauge is a tool for measuring rainfall at a given point. It measures the amount of rainfall over a period of time.
“This activity was successful in every commune, as agricultural workers, Red Cross volunteers and representatives from farmers’ organizations were trained to serve as contacts and help farmers install and monitor farmers’ rain scales. Also, Information collected throughout the territory will be transmitted to the National Weather Service to develop a national database.
The focus of the Faso Hydomet project at Burkina at the Red Cross Illiassa Sawadogo.
Therefore, the Water Gatekeeper Project will help improve the reliability of weather forecasts by providing various types of support to the early warning systems of the National Meteorological Administration, the General Administration of Water Resources and the Ministry of Agriculture.
Why target rural communities?
Climate events recorded in Brkina Faso have become increasingly unpredictable, frequent and intense. They have a significant impact on the lives and livelihoods of rural communities, including the risk of food and water insecurity. The worst-hit communities were also forcibly replaced due to the impact.
Burkina Faso received financing from the World Bank Group and the Green Climate Fund to address this situation. The project’s total budget is $33 million and aims to help beneficiaries improve their lifestyle and livelihood climates to protect themselves from the growing risks of climate-related disasters.
In order to improve the delivery of hydraulic services to end users, the FASO Wet Crime Project in Burkina cooperated with the National Meteorological Administration to acquire and distribute 9,700 rainfall meters to farmers across the country.
“We have received the Farmer Rain meter from the Hydromet Project. They will be of great help to us because they measure how much rainfall. So we will know when to sow and the seeds used to limit losses. In what we can use these Before the rain gauge, we used to sow seeds randomly and suffered huge losses when harvesting. We are very grateful for the project as it will improve our agricultural business.” Joséphine Naissa, a farmer in Binde
Finally, accompanied by the State Media Press, a team from the FASO Wet Tire Project Management Department of Burkina traveled nationwide for three weeks, listening to coaches and farmers’ readings using farmer rain scales and rainfall data. This campaign that supports the implementation of these activities helps to raise awareness of many activities.
Distributed by Apo Group on behalf of the World Bank Group.
