At the COP29 World Leaders Climate Action Summit, the Agriculture Innovation Mechanism for Scale (AIM for Scale) unveiled its first-ever, groundbreaking Innovation Package, aimed at providing weather information to help farmers adapt to the impacts of climate change. 

 

Future Innovation Packages will expand efforts to scale additional solutions addressing the interconnected challenges of climate change, food security, and agriculture.

 

AIM for Scale, in partnership with the Innovation Commission for Climate Change, Food Security, and Agriculture, designed an Innovation Package to empower the generation and dissemination of weather forecasts to hundreds of millions of farmers. 

 

The Package recognizes the transformative potential of AI-supported weather forecasting to help national meteorological and hydrological services (NMHS) produce high-quality, farmer-centered forecasts. Co-producing and disseminating these forecasts to millions of farmers can build resilience and support adaptation as climate change makes weather patterns less predictable. 

 

This process will build on previous efforts and consider varying needs across countries, while emphasizing gender equity and inclusion to ensure broad and equitable impact.

 

A consortium of global partners has committed to mobilizing significant investments over the next three years to drive the implementation of the AIM for Scale Weather Package. Highlights of these announcements include:

 

Following on its food security ambition during 2022–2025, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) will invest approximately $300 million in advanced weather forecasts tailored for the needs of farmers in Asia and the Pacific as part of ADB’s portfolio of food security operations during 2025-2027. 

 

ADB also announced a $600,000 technical assistance grant to facilitate the investment. Food security is a top priority under ADB’s updated Strategy 2030.

 

The Inter-American Development Bank expects to leverage weather forecasts in its portfolio of $280 million in loans in the coming three years and announced that it has programmed $600,000 of grant resources to support countries to introduce AI-based weather forecasts tailored to farmers’ needs in the IDB´s agriculture lending portfolio in Latin America and the Caribbean.

 

The World Bank is currently investing $1.46 billion in Data, Digital Agriculture and Innovations investments that align with the AIM for Scale Weather Package. 

 

These investments, of which about $591 million are in the Africa region, support georeferenced farmer registries, soil information systems, climate smart advisories, early warning systems, and pest diagnostic, and will provide the ideal vehicle to transmit high-quality, timely weather information to millions of Africa farmers.

 

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) and Nasa, working with Congress, has announced plans to expand the Servir program to Central America, investing $6.6 million in the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE). 

 

The new regional hub will launch in early December. SERVIR uses satellite data and geospatial technologies to expand access to early warning systems helping communities prepare and adapt to extreme weather events. 

The new SERVIR Central America Hub will collaborate with local, national, and regional partners to bolster the resilience of more than 40 million people, including 11 million people directly employed in agriculture.

 

The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare of India plans to digitally deliver weather forecasts to tens of millions of farmers, building on a successful initiative that reached 9.45 million in 2024.

 

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Community Jameel announced the scale-up of the Jameel Observatory-CREWSnet, using climate modeling, research and technological innovation to initially support 8 million smallholder farmers in Bangladesh at risk from climate change, in collaboration with BRAC.

 

The Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) and the University of Chicago’s Human-Centered Weather Forecasts and AI for Climate (AICE) initiatives, in partnership with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Systematic Observations Financing Facility (SOFF), launched a research and training program to improve access to high-quality, farmer-centered AI-supported predictions in more than 30 LMICs.

 

The program will leverage SOFF’s Peer Advisor Network to provide continued support to NMHS.

 

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) will provide guidance and technical assistance on weather observation, data management and exchange, forecasting, and agrometeorological weather and climate service development and delivery.

 

The United Nations Systematic Observations Financing Facility (SOFF) committed to support countries, in particular Small Island Developing States and Least Developed Countries, to close today’s significant weather and climate data gaps through the long-term grant financing and peer-to-peer technical assistance.

 

Lauding the key package, Dr. Amna al Dahak, Minister for Climate Change and Environment of the UAE, said: "Only three years ago at COP26, the UAE and the United States of America launched AIM for Climate to mobilise investments in food systems innovation worldwide. Our success has been truly transformative."

 

"Today, with the launch of AIM for Scale, we are accelerating our efforts to find highly promising, climate-friendly agricultural innovations and breaking down barriers to their scaling," he noted. 

 

In prepared remarks regarding the announcement, Mariam Almheiri, Head of the International Affairs Office at the Presidential Court of UAE, emphasized the importance of international collaboration: "The UAE’s partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was launched to mobilize actions like the AIM for Scale Weather Package announced at COP29."

 

"Through this partnership, we seek to accelerate food systems transformation and climate action.  Many innovations have the potential to improve the lives and livelihoods of climate-vulnerable people, but additional coordination and targeted investments are necessary to transition them to scale," she stated.

 

Fatima Yasmin, Vice-President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), said: "ADB, as the climate bank of Asia, recognizes the transformational importance of weather forecasts for advancing climate change adaptation in Asia and the Pacific."

 

"In this context, ADB is engaging in this Partnership with the ambition of increasing access to high-quality weather forecasts for any economic sector, and with the objective to scale up and boost evidence-based investments for weather forecasts for farmers and digital agriculturem," she added.

 

Jordan Schwartz, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Executive Vice President, said: "Food insecurity and hunger have actually worsened in Latin America and the Caribbean over the past decade. Increasing agricultural productivity, and small farmers’ output in particular, will be a key part in reversing this trend."

 

"Providing more accurate and relevant weather forecasting to small farmers will improve decision making around planting, harvesting and fertilizer use, leading to higher incomes and poverty reduction," he added.-TradeArabia News Service