MAINSTREAMING CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION IN AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION
2012
Give the groups an amount of time to do this (say 45 mins). If you are short of time
ask all groups to do the RAM for a normal year and then after this some groups to
focus on a La Nina year and the other groups to focus on an El Nino year. Go round
between groups to answer questions and clarify what they are asked to do and why.
After the 45 minutes choose some good examples and ask the groups who did them
to present and explain them.
Ask participants to share with the class and discuss how they could be used with
farmers.
Instructions for exercise 2 are given in Slide 2
PLEASE SEE THE EXAMPLE OF THE CROPPING CALENDAR ON
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The first exercise above that used RAMs looked at the whole farm and household.
The next exercise focuses on an individual crop.
• SLIDE 2 - USING CROP CALENDARS TO EXPLORE AND
PLAN CROP MANAGEMENT OPTIONS A Crop Calendar is a
diagram drawn by a farmer(s) that shows their main cropping
activities for a crop during the season. It can be used to
explore and plan what management options may be better to
use in different years (see handout)
• Draw a Crop Calendar for a field of a crop on an example
farm from your area for last year if it was a normal year. If it
wasn‟t pick the most recent normal year. Include all the crop
activities and when they were conducted in the season
• Consider what the farmer might do (and plan to do) if they
know next year is going to be a La Nina year. Mark this on
the crop calendar clearly
• Consider what the household might do (and plan to do) it
they know next year is going to be an El Nino year. Mark this
on the crop calendar clearly
• Think of probabilities of the events we looked at to help you
consider management options
A Training Manual on Use of Climate Information and Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment for
Agricultural Extension Staff in Zimbabwe
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