Standing Committee on Services for Agriculture

About us

At its first meeting in 2020, SERCOM decided to establish the Standing Committee on Services for Agriculture (SC-AGR) for the first intersessional period, with the terms of reference provided here. The SC-AGR is composed of several technical experts, including the Chair (Prof. Roger Christopher Stone) and Vice-chair (Dr. Elena Mateescu), selected from the WMO Expert Network by the President of the Commission. Other technical experts may be invited, on a needs basis, to serve as Observers on the Standing Committee, as determined by the chair/vice-chair of the Standing Committee in consultation with the president of the Services Commission. For the biography of the group members, click here.

The SC-AGR replaces the former Commission on Agricultural Meteorology (CAgM), which successfully operated between 1999 - 2020. An overview of the proceedings of CAgM is provided here .

Purpose of SC-AGR

In addition to the terms of reference the purpose of SC-AGR is described in the following:

Review and update user needs and requirements on all aspects of agrometeorological services and practices across agricultural value chain & various agricultural sub-sectors (crops, livestock, forestry, rangelands, and fisheries sectors);
Review and update standards and guidance on all aspects of agrometeorological services and practices including drought;
Provide technical assistance to GFCS on agriculture and food security;
Assess the WMO role in supporting the food security agenda and define possible related activities together with SC-CLI and SC-HYD;
Provide capacity building, technical advice, and tools to WMO Members on agrometeorological issues;
Provide scientific and technical advice to the Integrated Drought Management Programme (IDMP) and work with FAO and UNCCD.

The SC-AGR is working on guidance materials addressing its terms of reference in five expert teams which are regionally, and gender-balanced. The expert teams, as well as their composition, objectives, and working progress, are listed in more detail below.

Lead: Flavio Justino (Brazil) and Co-Lead: Cathleen Fruhauf (Germany)

Expert Team on Agromet Services (ET-AAS)

Lead: James Ijampy (Nigeria) and Co-Lead: Hatem Baccour (Tunisia)

Expert Team on Agromet Sciences (ET-ASC)

Lead: Ward Smith (Canada) and Co-Lead: John Qu (USA)

Expert Team on Drought (ET-DRG)

Lead: Andreja Susnik (Slovenia) and Co-Lead: Christa Pudmensky (Australia)

Expert Team on Agromet Capacity Development and Communication (ET-ACDC)

Lead: Valentina Grigoryan (Armenia) and Co-Lead: Grahma Baker (Australia)

Task Teams

Task Team on Climate Services and Fisheries (TT-CSF)

Task Team on Indigenous and local knowledge and Weather and Climate Services (TT-ILK)

Terms of Reference

(a) Review and update user needs and requirements on all aspects of agrometeorological services and practices across the agricultural value chain (farm-transport-milling-export/trading) and the various agricultural sub-sectors (crops, livestock, forestry, rangelands and fisheries sectors);

(b) Review and update standards and guidance on all aspects of agrometeorological services and practices across the agricultural value-chain and sub-sectors related to any relevant sub-groups of technical commissions, regional associations, Research Board, and Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS);

(c) Review existing standards and guidance material on drought management including monitoring, forecasting, and preparedness in liaison with the WMO/Global Water Partnership (GWP) Integrated Drought Management Programme (IDMP) and the development of new components with regards to the Global Hydrological Status and Outlook System (HydroSOS), Global Multi-hazard Alert System (GMAS), the Annual WMO Statement on the Status of the Global Climate and other WMO initiatives, in cooperation with other relevant Standing Committees;

(d) Provide technical assistance to the various GFCS processes and projects on agriculture and food security;

(e) Assess the WMO role in supporting the food security agenda and define possible related activities together with SC-CLI and SC-HYD whilst ensuring that agrometeorological (including weather and climate) and agricultural hydrology (including water quality and quantity) components of all major projects related to agriculture, food security, and drought applications including the requirements of Regional Associations (RAs) and reflecting good and sustainable practices and methodologies are addressed;

(f) Provide capacity building, technical advice and tools to WMO Members to enable agricultural users, across the value chain, to adequately understand and use weather and climate information such as historical variability and trends, sub-seasonal and seasonal climate forecasts and climate change projections to address the impacts of climatic variability and change on agriculture;

(g) Foster the development and use of effective communication methods and channels for acquiring and disseminating agrometeorological information, providing advice and warnings to agricultural subsectors, and obtaining feedback, including through the further development of the World Agrometeorological Information Service;

(h) Provide scientific and technical advice to the WMO/GWP Integrated Drought Management Programme (IDMP) and represent the WMO agricultural meteorology and drought communities at the IDMP governance meetings and United Nations related drought meetings (Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD));

(i) Explore the development of a Joint Technical Working Group on Agrometeorology with FAO and/or World Food Programme (WFP) including assessment of pollution and deposition impact on food production sustainability.