Climate knowledge incorporation for decision making in the Uruguayan agriculture sector

Doctoral thesis abstract

Abstract

This work tries to reveal some aspects related to the needs and uses of climate information, to support the decisions of people involved with agricultural production in Uruguay. According to the impact that it generates, the event chosen for the study is the agricultural drought, associated to interannual and interdecadal climate variability scales, in grasslands livestock systems. Information was collected from stakeholders linked to public policy, academia and agricultural producers located in the SE of Uruguay (34.12°S to 34.91°S and 54.34° E to 55.21°E). The information gathered was interpreted in the framework of the interviews, the Q methodology, and the analysis of social networks. Results show a sustained process of adaptation to agricultural droughts in recent decades, and a current context, both academic and political, that favor the creation and application of climate services for the agricultural sector. Climate services integrated with concrete agricultural realities and focused on prevention should be prioritized, since the adoption of preventive measures was an aspect of consensus. Climate forecasts, in particular, are useful for the scales associated with public policy decisions and climate research. The development of more specific information, considering the particularities of different regions and the different needs of the end users, would result in greater adoption of climate information at the level of the livestock farmers of this study. The Institute of Agricultural Research, the Agricultural Extention Institute and the Faculty of Agronomy, are key institutions for the translation and adaptation of climate services for the sector. In the long term, incorporating the complexity of the elaboration, translation, communication and application of climate information into university education, would facilitate its incorporation at different decision levels.