The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) under its SERVIR Hindu Kush Himalaya (SERVIR-HKH) and Climate Services for Resilient Development (CSRD) initiatives are collaborating with the meteorological and agricultural institutions in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) to establish an agricultural drought monitoring and early warning system.
SERVIR is a joint development initiative of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). SERVIR-HKH is implemented by ICIMOD in its regional member countries, prioritizing activities in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan.
According to ICIMOD sources, South Asia is one of the world's major water scarce regions and the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change's Fifth Assessment Report identifies drought as a major climate risk in South Asia. Access to good quality drought monitoring and early warning information is critical to in-season crop management and the production of timely agro advisory services.
The overall objective of this endeavour is to improve the capacity of national agro-meteorological and agricultural agencies in developing data products related to drought monitoring and enhancing the capacities of respective agencies in terms of the interpretation and dissemination of climate services in country-specific contexts.
The specific objectives are to develop regional agricultural drought monitoring and forecasting data products for South Asia, enhancing national drought monitoring systems by incorporating high spatial and temporal resolution satellite data products and contextualizing drought indices with local cropping patterns and crop calendars. It will also strengthen technical capacities of regional and national agencies for the generation and dissemination of drought monitoring and warning information.