–Minister Mustapha says; laments farmers, agriculture most affected by unpredictable weather patterns caused by climate change

THE Caribbean Climate Outlook Forum held its opening ceremony, and provided the forecast for the 2024 Wet/Hurricane season at the Ramada Hotel Providence on Thursday.

The two-day event was organised by the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH), and the Hydrometeorological Department of the Ministry of Agriculture in Guyana.

During his presentation, Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha said that climate change is real, and its effects are not limited to one country.

He said that its tremendous effect is being felt throughout the Caribbean region.

“In Latin America and the Caribbean, I want to point out that we are the second most disaster-prone area in the world. Not only the farmers, but people in general depend on you all (meteorologists); you are the main person who must inform us all about the weather forecast, and what we should expect.

“As a government, we are trying our utmost in Guyana to upgrade the system that we have, so that we can not only have normal weather forecasting, but so that we can predict the weather with some amount of accuracy,” Minister Mustapha said.

Recognising that climate change is real, Minister Mustapha said that the region and Guyana experienced the warmest weather last year.

“From July of last year to roughly April of this year, we haven’t had any rainfall. In 2020, when I became the Minister of Agriculture, we had one of the most devastating floods in the history of Guyana, and over 80 per cent of the agriculture sector was destroyed,” he added.

Those are some of the reasons that show the unpredictability of climate change across the region, and how dangerous it can be.

With agriculture being the backbone of most countries’ economies within Latin America and the Caribbean, Minister Mustapha explained that those nations are very dependent on the weather to ensure that they schedule their planting and harvesting of their produce.

He added, “Because of these factors, it is important for countries to develop, proper information systems so that they can disseminate information accurately. We must also ensure that we have a system that will inform the rural population so that everyone will be aware of the weather forecast and be prepared for it.”

Encouraging the attendees to work together and come up with ideas to upgrade current weather systems, Minister Mustapha said that they would be used to better serve the farmers and people in their respective countries.

Additionally, the agriculture minister said that despite the quantity of instruments a country may have to read the weather pattern, they will be useless if there is no responsive system in place to fulfil the needs of ordinary people.

With the evolution that has been seen over the years since the start of forecasting and the “tremendous” change in the weather patterns, Minister Mustapha also asked that all forecasters and the relevant officials insist on their respective governments making the necessary budgetary allocations available to “this important agency.”

“I am proud to say that we, the Government of Guyana, have been making large budgetary allocations, and every year we have seen steep increases in the HydroMet budget. This is a way for us to update our system so that we can keep abreast of the present weather conditions.

“Government must have the political will to ensure that they advocate…and match the infrastructure, be prepared, and take charge of these different periods that we are experiencing,” Minister Mustapha added.

Furthermore, the minister added that in order to create and implement efficient early warning systems, Regional Climate Outlook Forums, or RCOFs, are needed.

As threats from tropical cyclones, floods, landslides, and extreme heat increase, the Caribbean Climate Outlook Forum (CariCOF) is one such RCOF that works to develop climate services that are appropriate and specific to the Caribbean region in order to support the goals of disaster risk reduction and adaptation to climate variability and change.