- Email: [email protected]
Agrometeorological research needs in Tanzania
Agricultural Meteorology, 20(1979) 375--380 © Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, Amsterdam -- Printed in The Netherlands
375
A G R O M E T E O R O L O G I C A L R E S E A R C H N E E D S IN T A N Z A N I A
C. J. STIGTER and T. M. HYERA
Section of Agricultural Physics, Physics Department, University of Dares Salaam (Tanzania) Section of Agrometeorology, Tanzanian Meteorological Department, Dares Salaam (Tanzania) (Received June 2, 1978; accepted July 4, 1978)
ABSTRACT Stigter, C. J. and Hyera, T. M., 1979. Agrometeorological research needs in Tanzania. Agric. Meteorol., 20: 375--380. Replies from appropriate scientists in Tanzania to a questionnaire on research activity and needs in 25 agrometeorological subjects are examined. Subjects at present receiving the most coverage are agricultural botany, rainfall statistics and planting dates, and the water requirements of crops. The most important subjects for Tanzanian conditions are thought to be crop yield forecasting, rainfall statistics, and water requirements, but ten other fields are also considered important. Some of these are not yet receiving adequate coverage, and those which are thought to be most in need of outside assistance and advice are water requirements of crops, rainfall statistics, crop yield forecasting, data handling and crop physiology. Reasons for appearance of subjects under the headings low coverage and/or unimportant or least important are suggested.
INTRODUCTION
A q u e s t i o n n a i r e was sent to 40 persons, each carrying the final responsibility f o r answering q u e s t i o n s on agricultural research, b e l o n g i n g to 23 institutions. These i n s t i t u t i o n s i n c l u d e d t h r e e relevant d e p a r t m e n t s o f n a t i o n a l ministries, nine agricultural research stati6ns, d e p a r t m e n t s within three university faculties and eight o t h e r o r g a n i z a t i o n s with an agricultural research c o m p o n e n t . M a n y o f the i n s t i t u t i o n s are trying, w i t h i n a relatively v e r y small b u d g e t , to carry o u t w o r k closely related t o practical p r o b l e m s in T a n z a n i a n agricultural production. The r e s p o n s e o n a p e r s o n a l (26 o u t o f 40) as well as an i n s t i t u t i o n a l (15 o u t o f 23) basis was 65%. Three q u e s t i o n s were p u t to the participants, each referring to 25 i m p o r t a n t fields o f research t h a t either b e l o n g t o or s u p p o r t a g r o m e t e o r o l o g y a n d / o r are being s u p p o r t e d b y it. T h e y are fully specified in Table I in the w a y t h e y a p p e a r e d in the q u e s t i o n n a i r e list.
376 QUESTIONS AND REPLIES Question 1. Which fields of agrometeorology, either among those 25 listed or any other specific sub-fields, are at present being covered by your institution'? Question 2. Which f:elds, either among the list of 25 given or any other specific sub-fields, do you think are of most importance for Tanzania at present and in the near future? (No additional subjects were, in fact, suggested in the replies.) The replies to these two questions are summarized in Tables I and i1. Among the subjects said to be covered by the institutions (sometimes including a statement of modesty in regard to the depth of such covering), three were pre-eminent: agricultural botany, rainfall reliability statistics and planting dates, and the water requirements of crops. These were followed, at some distance, by agricultural entomology, agroclimatology, data handling, harvest meteorology, and meteorological hazards. The devotion of effort to agricultural b o t a n y seems to be an example of successful links between a basic science and agricultural practice in Tanzania. The presence of the other subjects is no surprise and t h e y have long been recognized as being of the utmost importance in tropical husbandry, and their degree of coverage is in first instance satisfying. The list of seven subjects receiving lowest coverage (see Table I) is somewhat revealing. It includes greenhouse meteorology, microclimate manipulation and remote sensing, which are also (see Table II) regarded as being of the least importance. It is true t h a t artificial climates and the use of remote sensing are new research fields in many tropical countries such as Tanzania, and certainly they have not as yet been proved to be essential from the point of view of tropical husbandry. However, the other subjects can be regarded as basic for consideration of tropical agricultural production. Two possible reasons for their relative absence may be mentioned. Firstly, financial and trained manpower constraints may play a role; secondly, the research attempts in these fields may be regarded as n o t y e t sufficiently related to practical problems. In this respect it gives cause for t h o u g h t that only two of these subjects (crop protection; instrumentation and measurements) are regarded to be of high importance to Tanzania at present or in the near future. A low priority is ascribed to agrohydrology and micrometeorology. As regards micrometeorological research it has indeed been emphasized during the Rome World Food Conference (Bernard, 1974) that its contents are very often too remote from relevant applications to the reality of agricultural practice, and this stricture applies even more strongly where lowincome farming is concerned. A combination of more specific attention to such practical applications and a better dissemination of resulting knowledge appears to be highly advisable. Among the subjects indicated as being of most importance to Tanzania (Table II), three took pride of place: rainfall statistics, water requirements of crops (both already receiving major coverage) and crop yield forecasting.
377 TABLE I Summary of questionnaire answers to question 1 (coverage) (numbers in brackets refer to order in questionnaire) High coverage
Very high coverage
Agricultural botany (including phenology and ecology) Rainfall reliability statistics and planting dates (including effective rainfall problems and cropping calendars) Water requirements of crops: irrigation and water relations; soilplant-atmosphere water relationships; water-yield (or crop-water) production functions; water deficits and plant growth
(1)
(21)
(24)
Medium coverage
Agricultural physics Crop physiology (including plant physiology) Crop phytopathology (including part of aerobiology ) Crop storage meteorology Crop yield forecasting Forest meteorology (including forest fires) Genotype-environment interactions and relationships Livestock meteorology Soil physics and soil meteorology (including erosion) Weather forecasting in relation to agricultural production
Agricultural entomology (including part of aerobiology) (2) Agroclimatology: general (including land use planning aspects and introduction of crops); highlands (including frost risks) (4) Collection, storage and retrieval of reliable routine data (6) Harvest and post-harvest meteorology (including drying) (15) Meteorological hazards (including prolonged environmental stresses and long term climatic changes) (18) L o w coverage
(3) (7) (8) (10) (11) (12) (13) (17)
Agrohydrology Crop protection (including windbreaks and shelter) Greenhouse meteorology (including other artificial climates) Instrumentation and measurements Microclimate manipulation Micrometeorology (including crop climate investigations) Remote sensing for agricultural purposes
(5) (9) (14) (16) (19) (20) (22)
(23) (25)
These are f o l l o w e d , at r a t h e r some distance, b y agricultural b o t a n y , agroc l i m a t o l o g y , d a t a handling, c r o p p h y s i o l o g y , c r o p p r o t e c t i o n , c r o p storage m e t e o r o l o g y , harvest m e t e o r o l o g y , i n s t r u m e n t a t i o n and m e a s u r e m e n t s , m e t e o r o l o g i c a l h a z a r d s and w e a t h e r f o r e c a s t i n g in r e l a t i o n to agriculture. A m o n g t h o s e least f a v o u r e d , including g r e e n h o u s e m e t e o r o l o g y and r e m o t e sensing already m e n t i o n e d , were f o r e s t m e t e o r o l o g y and m i c r o c l i m a t e manipulation. F o r e s t m e t e o r o l o g y m a y n e e d and earn increased a t t e n t i o n if an
378 TABLE II Summary of questionnaire answers to question 2 (importance) (numbers in brackets refer to order in questionnaire and can be used to Compare the in some cases more detailed subject description in Table I) Important
Very important
Crop yield forecasting Rainfall statistics and espeCially, Water requirements of crops
(11) (21) (24)
Agricultural botany Agroclimatology Data handling Crop physiology Crop protection Crop storage meteorology Harvest meteorology Instrumentation and measurements Meteorological hazards Weather forecasting for agriculture
(1) (4) (6) (7) (9) (10) (15 ) (16) (18) (25)
Less important
Agricultural entomology Genotype-environment interactions
Soilphysics Unimportant Agricultural physics Agrohydrology Crop phytopathology Livestock meteorology Micrometeorology
(2 ) (13 ) (23)
(3) (5) (8) (17) (20)
Least important Forest meteorology Greenhouse meteorology Microclimate manipulation Remote sensing
(12 ) (14) (19) (22)
afforestation programme planned against,erosion and other consequences of drought begins to take effect. The importance of realising the significance of small-scale microclimate modifications has been discussed elsewhere (Wilken, 1972), where it is t h o u g h t t h a t we should be able to learn m u c h from practices in traditional tropical farming. In addition to the low status allocated to a g r o h y d ~ l o g y and micrometeorology, it was with some e m ~ s m e n t t h a t the authors noticed the inclusion of a~icultu.~al physics, crop p h y t o p a t h o l o g y and livestock meteorology. Again trained manpower and financial constraints m a y be significant. Moreover, it m a y again be suggested t h a t these subjects are
379 supposed (at least in the opinion of our respondents but possibly in a wider context} to have as y e t not yielded results of sufficient value to the agricultural practices of low income farmers. Again more specific attention to practic~ problems and a better dissemination of existing knowledge should be combined for greater effect. The third question concerned future support: Question 3. Which of the fields that y o u have mentioned in question 2 will y o u r institution be able to cover in the near future if some support in agrometeorological expertise is given (through a national committee)? In their reply, respondents could only mention those fields rated as important in question 2. Moreover, it must be realized that assistance in agrometeorological matters alone may n o t be sufficient for covering a field of research. The replies indicated that most assistance was wanted in five subjects. Among these were crop yield forecasting, rainfall statistics and planting dates, and the water requirements of crops, all of which subjects were listed as very important in question 2, the highest priority being given to water requirements. Data handling and crop physiology were also regarded as needing a high degree of assistance. Regarding data handling, rainfall statistics and water requirements this implies a need for reinforcement, expansion and deepening of the already relatively high coverage existing in Tanzania apparent from the answers to question 1. Regarding crop yield forecasting and crop physiology, an expansion of the existing coverage should be emphasized along with measures to increase the application of existing knowledge to Tanzanian conditions. Least assistance appeared to be required for problems in crop protection, which is also mentioned in the topics at present with low coverage. This suggests that a basic reassessment of this problem and its significance for Tanzanian agriculture is needed. Subjects such as crop storage meteorology, instrumentation and measurements, and weather forecasting for agriculture, as yet have medium or low coverage, are not particularly indicated for needed support and y e t are amongst those rated as important. Assistance may therefore be needed in starting more work on these topics. FINAL COMMENTS We are aware of the many limitations of our short questionnaire, posing problems of interpretation on which firm conclusions can be drawn. The list of research subjects (see Table I) is indeed a personal choice adapted to Tanzanian conditions. Nevertheless we feel that enough significance can be attributed to the answers from a fairly representative and regionally distributed sample of respondents. An investigation into the reasons why some 35% of the questionnaires were not returned after a reminder had been sent has not been attempted. It
380 may have been due to a lack of interest in agrometeorology and its applications by the persons or institutions concerned. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The authors acknowledge the permission of the Director of the East African Meteorological D epar t m ent , Tanzanian Branch, to publish these results. We also acknowledge i m p o r t a n t editorial advice by Dr. L. P. Smith. REFERENCES
Bernard, E., 1974. Agrometeorology and agricultural production. Background Paper AGPE, MISC/5, 9 pp. Wilken, G. C., 1972. Microclimate management by traditional farmers. Geogr. Rev., 62: 544--560.
375
A G R O M E T E O R O L O G I C A L R E S E A R C H N E E D S IN T A N Z A N I A
C. J. STIGTER and T. M. HYERA
Section of Agricultural Physics, Physics Department, University of Dares Salaam (Tanzania) Section of Agrometeorology, Tanzanian Meteorological Department, Dares Salaam (Tanzania) (Received June 2, 1978; accepted July 4, 1978)
ABSTRACT Stigter, C. J. and Hyera, T. M., 1979. Agrometeorological research needs in Tanzania. Agric. Meteorol., 20: 375--380. Replies from appropriate scientists in Tanzania to a questionnaire on research activity and needs in 25 agrometeorological subjects are examined. Subjects at present receiving the most coverage are agricultural botany, rainfall statistics and planting dates, and the water requirements of crops. The most important subjects for Tanzanian conditions are thought to be crop yield forecasting, rainfall statistics, and water requirements, but ten other fields are also considered important. Some of these are not yet receiving adequate coverage, and those which are thought to be most in need of outside assistance and advice are water requirements of crops, rainfall statistics, crop yield forecasting, data handling and crop physiology. Reasons for appearance of subjects under the headings low coverage and/or unimportant or least important are suggested.
INTRODUCTION
A q u e s t i o n n a i r e was sent to 40 persons, each carrying the final responsibility f o r answering q u e s t i o n s on agricultural research, b e l o n g i n g to 23 institutions. These i n s t i t u t i o n s i n c l u d e d t h r e e relevant d e p a r t m e n t s o f n a t i o n a l ministries, nine agricultural research stati6ns, d e p a r t m e n t s within three university faculties and eight o t h e r o r g a n i z a t i o n s with an agricultural research c o m p o n e n t . M a n y o f the i n s t i t u t i o n s are trying, w i t h i n a relatively v e r y small b u d g e t , to carry o u t w o r k closely related t o practical p r o b l e m s in T a n z a n i a n agricultural production. The r e s p o n s e o n a p e r s o n a l (26 o u t o f 40) as well as an i n s t i t u t i o n a l (15 o u t o f 23) basis was 65%. Three q u e s t i o n s were p u t to the participants, each referring to 25 i m p o r t a n t fields o f research t h a t either b e l o n g t o or s u p p o r t a g r o m e t e o r o l o g y a n d / o r are being s u p p o r t e d b y it. T h e y are fully specified in Table I in the w a y t h e y a p p e a r e d in the q u e s t i o n n a i r e list.
376 QUESTIONS AND REPLIES Question 1. Which fields of agrometeorology, either among those 25 listed or any other specific sub-fields, are at present being covered by your institution'? Question 2. Which f:elds, either among the list of 25 given or any other specific sub-fields, do you think are of most importance for Tanzania at present and in the near future? (No additional subjects were, in fact, suggested in the replies.) The replies to these two questions are summarized in Tables I and i1. Among the subjects said to be covered by the institutions (sometimes including a statement of modesty in regard to the depth of such covering), three were pre-eminent: agricultural botany, rainfall reliability statistics and planting dates, and the water requirements of crops. These were followed, at some distance, by agricultural entomology, agroclimatology, data handling, harvest meteorology, and meteorological hazards. The devotion of effort to agricultural b o t a n y seems to be an example of successful links between a basic science and agricultural practice in Tanzania. The presence of the other subjects is no surprise and t h e y have long been recognized as being of the utmost importance in tropical husbandry, and their degree of coverage is in first instance satisfying. The list of seven subjects receiving lowest coverage (see Table I) is somewhat revealing. It includes greenhouse meteorology, microclimate manipulation and remote sensing, which are also (see Table II) regarded as being of the least importance. It is true t h a t artificial climates and the use of remote sensing are new research fields in many tropical countries such as Tanzania, and certainly they have not as yet been proved to be essential from the point of view of tropical husbandry. However, the other subjects can be regarded as basic for consideration of tropical agricultural production. Two possible reasons for their relative absence may be mentioned. Firstly, financial and trained manpower constraints may play a role; secondly, the research attempts in these fields may be regarded as n o t y e t sufficiently related to practical problems. In this respect it gives cause for t h o u g h t that only two of these subjects (crop protection; instrumentation and measurements) are regarded to be of high importance to Tanzania at present or in the near future. A low priority is ascribed to agrohydrology and micrometeorology. As regards micrometeorological research it has indeed been emphasized during the Rome World Food Conference (Bernard, 1974) that its contents are very often too remote from relevant applications to the reality of agricultural practice, and this stricture applies even more strongly where lowincome farming is concerned. A combination of more specific attention to such practical applications and a better dissemination of resulting knowledge appears to be highly advisable. Among the subjects indicated as being of most importance to Tanzania (Table II), three took pride of place: rainfall statistics, water requirements of crops (both already receiving major coverage) and crop yield forecasting.
377 TABLE I Summary of questionnaire answers to question 1 (coverage) (numbers in brackets refer to order in questionnaire) High coverage
Very high coverage
Agricultural botany (including phenology and ecology) Rainfall reliability statistics and planting dates (including effective rainfall problems and cropping calendars) Water requirements of crops: irrigation and water relations; soilplant-atmosphere water relationships; water-yield (or crop-water) production functions; water deficits and plant growth
(1)
(21)
(24)
Medium coverage
Agricultural physics Crop physiology (including plant physiology) Crop phytopathology (including part of aerobiology ) Crop storage meteorology Crop yield forecasting Forest meteorology (including forest fires) Genotype-environment interactions and relationships Livestock meteorology Soil physics and soil meteorology (including erosion) Weather forecasting in relation to agricultural production
Agricultural entomology (including part of aerobiology) (2) Agroclimatology: general (including land use planning aspects and introduction of crops); highlands (including frost risks) (4) Collection, storage and retrieval of reliable routine data (6) Harvest and post-harvest meteorology (including drying) (15) Meteorological hazards (including prolonged environmental stresses and long term climatic changes) (18) L o w coverage
(3) (7) (8) (10) (11) (12) (13) (17)
Agrohydrology Crop protection (including windbreaks and shelter) Greenhouse meteorology (including other artificial climates) Instrumentation and measurements Microclimate manipulation Micrometeorology (including crop climate investigations) Remote sensing for agricultural purposes
(5) (9) (14) (16) (19) (20) (22)
(23) (25)
These are f o l l o w e d , at r a t h e r some distance, b y agricultural b o t a n y , agroc l i m a t o l o g y , d a t a handling, c r o p p h y s i o l o g y , c r o p p r o t e c t i o n , c r o p storage m e t e o r o l o g y , harvest m e t e o r o l o g y , i n s t r u m e n t a t i o n and m e a s u r e m e n t s , m e t e o r o l o g i c a l h a z a r d s and w e a t h e r f o r e c a s t i n g in r e l a t i o n to agriculture. A m o n g t h o s e least f a v o u r e d , including g r e e n h o u s e m e t e o r o l o g y and r e m o t e sensing already m e n t i o n e d , were f o r e s t m e t e o r o l o g y and m i c r o c l i m a t e manipulation. F o r e s t m e t e o r o l o g y m a y n e e d and earn increased a t t e n t i o n if an
378 TABLE II Summary of questionnaire answers to question 2 (importance) (numbers in brackets refer to order in questionnaire and can be used to Compare the in some cases more detailed subject description in Table I) Important
Very important
Crop yield forecasting Rainfall statistics and espeCially, Water requirements of crops
(11) (21) (24)
Agricultural botany Agroclimatology Data handling Crop physiology Crop protection Crop storage meteorology Harvest meteorology Instrumentation and measurements Meteorological hazards Weather forecasting for agriculture
(1) (4) (6) (7) (9) (10) (15 ) (16) (18) (25)
Less important
Agricultural entomology Genotype-environment interactions
Soilphysics Unimportant Agricultural physics Agrohydrology Crop phytopathology Livestock meteorology Micrometeorology
(2 ) (13 ) (23)
(3) (5) (8) (17) (20)
Least important Forest meteorology Greenhouse meteorology Microclimate manipulation Remote sensing
(12 ) (14) (19) (22)
afforestation programme planned against,erosion and other consequences of drought begins to take effect. The importance of realising the significance of small-scale microclimate modifications has been discussed elsewhere (Wilken, 1972), where it is t h o u g h t t h a t we should be able to learn m u c h from practices in traditional tropical farming. In addition to the low status allocated to a g r o h y d ~ l o g y and micrometeorology, it was with some e m ~ s m e n t t h a t the authors noticed the inclusion of a~icultu.~al physics, crop p h y t o p a t h o l o g y and livestock meteorology. Again trained manpower and financial constraints m a y be significant. Moreover, it m a y again be suggested t h a t these subjects are
379 supposed (at least in the opinion of our respondents but possibly in a wider context} to have as y e t not yielded results of sufficient value to the agricultural practices of low income farmers. Again more specific attention to practic~ problems and a better dissemination of existing knowledge should be combined for greater effect. The third question concerned future support: Question 3. Which of the fields that y o u have mentioned in question 2 will y o u r institution be able to cover in the near future if some support in agrometeorological expertise is given (through a national committee)? In their reply, respondents could only mention those fields rated as important in question 2. Moreover, it must be realized that assistance in agrometeorological matters alone may n o t be sufficient for covering a field of research. The replies indicated that most assistance was wanted in five subjects. Among these were crop yield forecasting, rainfall statistics and planting dates, and the water requirements of crops, all of which subjects were listed as very important in question 2, the highest priority being given to water requirements. Data handling and crop physiology were also regarded as needing a high degree of assistance. Regarding data handling, rainfall statistics and water requirements this implies a need for reinforcement, expansion and deepening of the already relatively high coverage existing in Tanzania apparent from the answers to question 1. Regarding crop yield forecasting and crop physiology, an expansion of the existing coverage should be emphasized along with measures to increase the application of existing knowledge to Tanzanian conditions. Least assistance appeared to be required for problems in crop protection, which is also mentioned in the topics at present with low coverage. This suggests that a basic reassessment of this problem and its significance for Tanzanian agriculture is needed. Subjects such as crop storage meteorology, instrumentation and measurements, and weather forecasting for agriculture, as yet have medium or low coverage, are not particularly indicated for needed support and y e t are amongst those rated as important. Assistance may therefore be needed in starting more work on these topics. FINAL COMMENTS We are aware of the many limitations of our short questionnaire, posing problems of interpretation on which firm conclusions can be drawn. The list of research subjects (see Table I) is indeed a personal choice adapted to Tanzanian conditions. Nevertheless we feel that enough significance can be attributed to the answers from a fairly representative and regionally distributed sample of respondents. An investigation into the reasons why some 35% of the questionnaires were not returned after a reminder had been sent has not been attempted. It
380 may have been due to a lack of interest in agrometeorology and its applications by the persons or institutions concerned. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The authors acknowledge the permission of the Director of the East African Meteorological D epar t m ent , Tanzanian Branch, to publish these results. We also acknowledge i m p o r t a n t editorial advice by Dr. L. P. Smith. REFERENCES
Bernard, E., 1974. Agrometeorology and agricultural production. Background Paper AGPE, MISC/5, 9 pp. Wilken, G. C., 1972. Microclimate management by traditional farmers. Geogr. Rev., 62: 544--560.