Using national climate services to find varieties that match local conditions, reaching 88,000 farmers in Rwanda

CCAFS. 2019. Using national climate services to find varieties that match local conditions, reaching 88,000 farmers in Rwanda. Wageningen, the Netherlands: CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).

District agronomists in Rwanda, trained to access, understand and use the advanced suite of online climate information products and tools available through the national meteorological agency, Meteo Rwanda, are now using this information to improve the services they provide to farmers.

By analysing local historical climate information, district agronomists realized that the crop seed varieties that had been distributed to farmers were not well adapted to local conditions. They identified maize hybrids that better matched the local climate and distributed the improved seed to 87,872 farmers.