2 May 2011

Climate Change Impacts in Agriculture workshop starts in Nadi

10:47 am on 2 May 2011

A workshop intended to equip agricultural and meteorological officers with more skills to help Pacific farmers deal with changing weather patterns begins in Fiji today.

The three-week Nadi Workshop on Assessment of Climate Change Impacts in Agriculture will covers areas such as climate change scenarios, climate change impact assessments, weather and climate forecasts for agriculture and the models that determine crop production based on climate change.

It's part of a United Nations Development Programme project bringing together agro-meteorologists from the Caribbean, where farmers are already benefitting from climate change impact assessments - with their Pacific and Indian Ocean counterparts to learn how to predict changes in agricultural production from shifting weather patterns.

Representatives from 12 Pacific countries - American Samoa, Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu; as well as representatives from East Timor and the Maldives - are attending.