"BMKG keeps implementing climate and weather field schools for (farmers and) fishers to realize and support digital or modern agriculture and fisheries," she remarked at the BMKG 2022 National Coordination Meeting here on Monday.
She said that in the past 10 years, climate field schools have been held for farmers at 451 district-level locations in 33 provinces, with the number of participants reaching 16 thousand.
Karnawati claimed that the achievement is in line with the increased understanding of instructors and farmers about climate information in agriculture, which has an impact on land productivity.
According to her, the implementation of climate field schools has successfully helped increase the output of some food commodities, such as corn plants as well as horticulture, by about 30 percent.
Meanwhile, the weather field schools for fishers, which were started in 2016, have assisted 10,118 participants at 159 locations spread across 33 provinces in the country.
"A better understanding of weather information integrated with the fishing ground will bring about a paradigm shift from finding fish to catching fish. Thus, it is expected to improve safety and reduce the risk of sea accidents due to weather factors," Karnawati said.
Also, through the field schools, the average fish catch has increased by about 20–30 percent.
Monday’s BMKG National Coordination Meeting aimed to discuss policies and systems that have proven resilient in ensuring food security and sovereignty in an equitable and sustainable manner.
Another objective of the meeting was to expand the scope of the farmers' climate field schools and fishers' weather field schools by involving relevant parties.
During the meeting, the BMKG head also launched the portal of the climate field school and the national consortium of earthquakes and tsunamis.
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Translator: Devi R, Kenzu T
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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