SlMet concludes a week-long dissemination and popularisation of the 2025 dry seasonal outlook for relevant stakeholders across the regions.
The Sierra Leone Meteorological Agency (SLMet) has on Wednesday 13th March, 2025 concluded nationwide workshops on the 2025 National Dry Seasonal outlook for relevant stakeholders across the regions. The workshop which commenced in Port Loko Town - North Western Region on Friday 7th March, 2025, came to a close on Wednesday 13th March, 2025 in Eastern Kenema.
The workshops follow the official launch of the Dry seasonal outlook document on 21st January, 2025 at the Agency's Forecasting House, Tower Hill in Freetown. The publication provides a detailed Dry Seasonal Outlook, covering January to April, 2025. It further captures temperature trends, dust forecasts, potential risks and actionable recommendations. As part of its work, the Agency's 2025 Dry Seasonal Forecast will help to capacitate farmers to embark on, and sustain resilience farming, Climate-smart agriculture or farming, and enhance environmental development to meet the challenge of providing sustainable livelihood to farmers, attainment of food security on hungry millions, and the eradication of poverty. This also includes the development of agriculture 'smart enough' to survive the onslaught impact of climate change.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the workshop in Port Loko, Peter Rogers in the climate change Department who presented on 'Sierra Leone Climate Change Policies and Strategies (NDC and NAP reflections on Agriculture)' said,
“climate change and its related impacts are already dwindling crop productivity in some parts of the world and many crops that use to maximize production have experienced less productivity over the last decade, a trend that is projected to continue as temperatures rise further across the globe. To provide lasting solution to this alarming trend, farmers and citizens should adapt to some changes, but data shows that there is a limit to what we can be able to mitigate, but however, the Agency is making efforts to ensure access to up to date informations embedded in the 2025 Dry Seasonal Outlook on current weather and its impact between January to April, 2025”.
Presenting the detail of the 2025 Dry Seasonal Forecast, Ag. Head of Climatology at SLMet, Polynus Thomas disclosed that, the 2025 Dry Seasonal projections poses significant challenges due to above-average temperatures, but maintained that coordinated efforts among government, private sector and communities will be essential to mitigate the impacts and ensure resilience. He continued that the 2025 Dry Season is expected to be hotter than average, influenced by ongoing El-Nino conditions.
"The daytime temperatures are predicted to range between 28 and 40 degrees centigrade across most regions, with the Northern and North-Eastern parts experiencing the highest extremes, adding that the nighttime temperatures will remain relatively warm, with 22 to 26 degree centigrade average".
Ag. Head of Communications at the Agency, Success Sei Kamara who made presentations on the mechanisms involved in communicating weather information and the Agency's Complaint Redress Mechanism (CRM), said that the Agency will commence its Complaints Redress Mechanism in April which will help provide feedbacks to local farmers and relevant stakeholders on their concerns bordering on weather and climate change. He said that these concerns and complaints will be looked into with the urgency it deserves and provide concise and applicable feedbacks to all concerns raised during the year.
In his statement Human Resource Officer of the Kambia District Council, Abdulai Mohamed Kamara expressed his gratitude for the opportunity the Agency has accorded his district to benefit from such useful training. He said that a lot has changed in the weather pattern with huge impacts on crop productivity, and as such, farmers and other persons in the agricultural sector including the council need to have access to weather information that can help them cope with the changing climate and adapt to climate-smart farming.
“If we want to change the scenario in respect of food sufficiency and sustainability, we should embrace this workshop and demand more from SLMet and other relevant stakeholders to provide more information to enhance farming and livelihoods”, he added.
The Agric-Extension Officer Ministry of Agriculture in Makeni, Lahai Bangura expressed similar sentiments, adding that weather has and continues to change so much that one can even experience rain in March of each succeeding year with harmattan even being felt with no fixed timeline compared to decades ago.
“We therefore, encourage SLMET to continue to reach out to more people with this information sharing to the chiefdom and community levels and also, as a reliable partner, commend them for organizing such a workshop aimed at providing valuable information to farmers and stakeholders at the local level”.
National Farmers Federation(NFF) Alpha Kamara, on behalf of his farming group expressed gratitude for the engagement and call on all farmers to take advantage of the information.
"Due to the change in the climate, coupled with the continuing shift in the weather pattern, we as local farmers are concerned about the changing trend and as such find this engagement very useful and informative”, he said in his brief and to the point remarks.
Wrapping up the workshop in the various locations in the regions, SLMet Climate Change Officers, Marilyn Godwin made presentations on 'Climate Change impacts on the Agriculture sector (Crops and livestock)', Randy Anita Fornah anchored on 'Early warning systems and weather Forecasting for Farmers' and Climate Change Researcher Asana Songo presented on 'Climate Smart Farming: adapting to Dry Season Challenges (Crop and livestock)'.
The one week engagement as it conclude on Wednesday in Eastern Kenema, is expected to leave participants more aware, while furnished with key recommendations on how to mitigate the 2025 Dry Season.
Group photographs were taken in the various targeted locations showcasing the relevant stakeholders who participated.
