Good Practice on Capacity Development for Agricultural Innovation Systems. Local Technical Agroclimatic Committees (MTAs)

Local stakeholders and agricultural producers in Latin America have limited access to agroclimatic information and, when they do gain access to it, they have difficulty translating it into understandable and actionable knowledge. While climate services are recognized as contributing to bridging the gap between the generation of climate information and its use by stakeholders, their provision and use in Latin America still represents critical challenge.

Effective implementation of climate services implies a process of change in attitude, knowledge and skills of stakeholders (e.g., institutions, extension services and farmers) to inform decision making in production systems given the expected climate variations in their region. The approach of the Local Technical Agroclimatic Committees (Mesas Tecnicas Agroclimaticas [MTAs] in Spanish) has proven to be an effective mechanism for delivering free climate services that aim to contribute to closing the gap between the generation and use of climate data.

With the objective of providing timely, open, accessible and useful climate information free of charge at the local scale, this approach emerged in Colombia, as a pilot in Cauca and Córdoba in 2013. Over the last 10 years, it has been adapted and scaled in 11 countries in the region which recognize MTAs as an innovative mechanism to reduce climate risks in the agricultural sector.