The role of climate forecasts in smallholder agriculture: Lessons from participatory research in two communities in Senegal

Climate forecasts have shown potential for improving resilience of African agriculture to climate shocks, but uncertainty remains about how farmers would use such information in crop management decisions and whether doing so would benefit them. This article presents results from participatory research with farmers from two agro-ecological zones of Senegal, West Africa. Based on simulation exercises, the introduction of seasonal and dekadal forecasts induced changes in farmers’ practices in almost 75% of the cases. Responses were categorized as either implying pure intensification of cropping systems (21% of cases), non-intensified strategies (31%) or a mix of both (24%)