Accra (Greater Accra) 8 Feb.’99
Ghana will next week host two important workshops on agrometeorology to create increased awareness on how matters of the weather and climate affect day-to-day activities, especially food production. From Monday, February 15, she will host an international workshop on Agrometeorology to be followed on February 18 by the 12th Session of the Commission for Agrometeorology. Mr John Mahama, Minister of Communications, who announced this at a news conference in Accra today noted that even though meteorology plays a vital role in agriculture, it does not receive the required attention. “It is for this reason that the government decided to host these important events to benefit from the information and knowledge that will come out of them”. Ghana is the first country in Africa to host the conference which is held every four years. The three-day workshop being organised jointly with the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) will be attended by senior experts from the international community. WMO, which has 185 member states, is the supreme body that determines the general policy for weather, climate, operational hydrology and related sciences. The workshop on the theme: “Agrometeorology in the 21st Century,” will assess future application needs of the subject and make recommendations for future action and state-of-the-art techniques and methods of agrometeorological data. Mr Mahama said the nine-day 12th Session of the Commission for Agrometeorology will be attended by 200 delegates from 150 countries. The Session on the theme: “Weather, Climate and Agriculture” will draw a programme for the Commission for 1999 to 2002. It will discuss issues such as farming practices, forestry, livestock management and land use. Economic impacts of flooding, surges resulting in inundation, especially of coastal locations, and methods of assessing these will be adequately deliberated on.
