Developing Tailored Agro-met Predictions for Target Cropping Systems in Vanuatu: tailOred System of Climate services for AgRiculutre (OSCAR)

Vanuatu as one of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in the Pacific region is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate impacts including climate-related natural disasters. In order to build the adaptive capacity of vulnerable communities and users of climate information and services. The Climate Information Services for Resilient Development Planning in Vanuatu (Van-CISRDP; Vanuatu Klaemet Infomesen blong Redy, Adapt mo Protekt (Van-KIRAP) in Bislama) project was approved at the Green Climate Fund (GCF) 15^th meeting of the board in Apia, Samoa in December 2016 (FP 035). The two implementing entities: Secretariat of the Pacific Environment Program (SPREP) and Geo-Hazard Department (VMGD) and three delivery partners:  APEC Climate Center (APCC), Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) and Australia Bureau of Meteorology are collaboratively conducted the Van-KIRAP project. In the Van-KIRAP project, the major activities of APCC consist of (1) Develop Agro met information portal including new on line IT infrastructure and software (OSCAR prototype), (2) Collecting, modelling, analysis and reporting of agro-met data to determine optimal agriculture crop planning options, (3) Undertaking field trials and validation prior to incorporation into DSS delivery platforms, ground truthing and outreach with target Next/End Users, and (4) Develop the crop-climate diary (CCD) customised for agro-met data collection. In this presentation, we will introduce the APCC portion of the Van-KIRAP project including experimental field trials for major staple crops, various training and education programs in both on-line and on-site, and the development of the OSCAR system incorporating various Artificial Intelligence techniques and modelling approaches. These will provide relevant climate information applied to the agriculture sector. The CCD will serve as a tool to collect data in an efficient streamlined manner from different areas of Vanuatu. Utilizing the data from CCD, OSCAR will be a hub for the interaction of climate information and agriculture.