Mid-Term Evaluation of the Climate Services Supporting Adaptation in the Indonesian Food Crops System

This mid-term evaluation is on two USAID-supported climate services aimed at helping Indonesia adapt to climate change: the Indonesian Seasonal Drought Early Warning System (SDEWS) and the Climate Field Schools (CFS). Both are designed to provide information for rice production and secondary crops.
 

Rice is quite susceptible to climate change impacts, such as changes in temperature, drought or increased salinity. A decrease of 10 percent in rice yield has been found to be associated with every 1 °C increase in temperature.
 

The evaluation included a literature review and interviews with staff, government partners and farmers. 
 

It found that drought early warning system model appears to be very sound. It takes advantage of district institutions related to agriculture extension services; focuses on farming areas with a high sensitivity to drought and other climate impacts; and links early warning forecasts to the crop calendar phase when rough risk is particularly high. It said the forecasts, however, are often not sufficient to overcome structural requirements of irrigated rice cultivation and inherent agroecological conditions in a given area. 
 

It said district governments should take better advantage of the farmer field school model to build farmer involvement in crop calendar setting and to experiment with a variety of adaptation models and techniques to better address irregular rainfall and drought. It recommended a formal evaluation of these climate field schools.