TAHMO

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Gilbert attended the weather event indaba hosted by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, the Make-IT in Africa, Agency for Business & Economic Development (AWE) and Strathmore University (@iLabAfrica) to explore the potential of integrated digital solutions in Agriculture. It aimed at exploring ways of using technology such as IoT and AI we aim to make life better for those who produce our daily food – the small-scale farmers and their families

Various participants from agricultural organizations, financial and insurance companies, tech start-ups, and government agencies were hosted. Gilbert demonstrated the TAHMO API and how it would contribute to improving the weather value chain in Africa.

At the end of the workshop, participants engaged in design thinking and developed possible solutions that agricultural communities, innovative start-ups, and tech communities can work together to bleach various challenges in the agriculture chain. On the sideline, Gilbert held meetings with the team of IBM Germany.

 

 


TAHMO hosted two workshops on user engagement one for the TAHMO internship and the other for users of the data on the 25th and 27th of August respectively. On the internship workshop, 18 graduates who recently joined our TAHMO internship program attended an induction meeting held at KMD, hosted by Gilbert and also facilitated by Frank( TAHMO CEO) and David Mburu (Director of Training school at KMD). Dirk V.O. Lubbe and Els Veenhoven also contributed to the workshop.

 It was an opportunity for interns to know how TAHMO operates, the challenges we want to solve, and how they would be involved. The internship program will challenge participants to solve a wide range of problems in the meteorological industry – from mapping users’ needs, big data management, station network management, school-to-school programs, and the development of business with weather data.  I am looking forward to reading lots of stories about what each one of them will be doing.

 Follow what the interns are up to on the link: https://sites.google.com/view/tahmointernship

On August 27th, TAHMO and KMS co-organized a workshop on Environmental sensor market research. over 50 participants ranging from Farmers, Universities, and private and public institutions attended.

TAHMO attended the 2nd RCMRD International Conference which was organized from the 15th to the 17th of August, 2018. Here, stakeholders from across Africa came together with ideas on how to fast-track applications for earth observations and geo-information technologies and discussed how to implement these into decision-making processes.

During the open-panel discussion, TAHMO shared its vision and experience on the importance of institutional collaboration.


In the framework of its activities in Burkina Faso, TAHMO was contacted by one of its Partner organizations a local NGO MARP which owned one of TAHMO’s Generation 2 stations since 2015; for the installation of a Generation 3 station with additional sensors at Gourcy in Northern Burkina. MARP is an NGO active in development areas such as food security and nutrition, disaster risk reduction, and climate change which requires reliable climatic data and information. Dr. Mande Theophile the representative of TAHMO in Burkina has been in charge of both training MARP’s staff and installing the station. In June; he organized a training workshop for three staff of MARP which included two interns (GNOUMU Juliette and OULE Dapé Serge) and MARP’s technical director Julien OUEDRAOGO (in the picture below). In the past, the MARP’s NGO only collected rainfall data and this was done manually; in December 2015 the installation of the TAHMO Gen 2 automatic weather station at its headquarters in Ouagadougou offered them the opportunity to collect simultaneously several meteorological parameters at a higher frequency. However, the location of the station was about 150 km from the MARP area of action (the northern region) so they requested the new station. For Mr. Ouedraogo, the data collected at the new location will correspond more to the local climatic conditions and will allow MARP to provide relevant information to its partners and stakeholders. The new location of the station (roof-top) was decided by MARP according to the physical constraints of the site (trees).

At the end of the installation, the technical director of MARP thanked Dr. MANDE for adding a station to the MARP network. He was excited to see the data flow from the station to his computer in near-real time.

**Written by Théophile Mande

MARP staff trained: From left ( intern OULE DAPE SERGE, Mr. OUEDRAOGO NIMBRATA JULIEN, intern GNOUMU Juliette)

Station installed on the rooftop.

 


TAHMO was invited to the annual conference of the Ghana Geographers’ Association. The association is the umbrella body for lecturers and tutors who teach Geography at the University and secondary school levels respectively in the country. The association’s conference provides a platform for them to take a retrospective look at the subject (content), and teaching methods, build members’ capacities, and discuss issues that relate to the growth of the association. The conference also provides members who have undertaken research the opportunity to share their work and more importantly, how the association can help with the national course.

This year was held at the University for Education, Winneba, and was under the theme: ‘Geography- The missing link in Ghana’s Development Agenda?’ The conference was graced by the Vice President of Ghana – Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.

TAHMO was asked to make a presentation on our school2school initiative. The West Africa Regional TAHMO Representative Mr. Kwame Duah Anhwere shared with the participants the desire to help improve Climatology which is part of the Geography syllabus in Ghana and the rest of Africa by TAHMO. This has started by installing the TAHMO stations in schools across Africa and Ghana in particular. TAHMO has also developed teaching and learning materials to facilitate teaching in the schools. A dedicated website www.school2school.net has been provided by TAHMO where schools can access the data for their lessons.

Kwame at the conference reiterated the fact that the school2school platform offers the Geography teachers and their Association a crucial avenue to partner with TAHMO as they work together to get these teaching and learning materials into the Ghanaian Geography curriculum. Currently, TAHMO has 85 stations in Ghana and 78 out of this number are in schools. All host schools have been educated about the stations, especially during the installation period. Though TAHMO has the approval of GES to install in schools, partnership with the Geographers’ Association is vital since its members form part of the exam board that examines students on the subject matter.

As it turned out, the association members who do not have TAHMO stations requested one for their schools. However, they were informed that they could be connected to nearby TAHMO stations so the hosts become more resource centers to serve others.

We (TAHMO) look forward to a fruitful partnership with the association in the coming days.

**Written by Kwame Duah A.


The past few months have seen TAHMO install over 100 stations in various parts of East Africa.
Kenya installed 40 new stations, Malawi installed 21, Tanzania installed 6, and Rwanda 15 stations. These are additional stations to the existing ones in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. There is advanced progress to have stations installed in all corners of East Africa. In East Africa, TAHMO works closely with National Meteorological Agencies to identify locations that have historically been underserved with real-time and accurate weather data.


Every five kilometers ($ 3) that you run and every thirty kilometers ($ 5) that you ride on your bicycle are valuable. Not only for you but also for scientists, farmers, fishermen, malaria fighters, and government agencies in Africa. Because when you download their free app, the Meter Group, a supplier of measurement technology, donates these dollars for your meters to the Trans-African Hydro-Meteorological Observatory Foundation (TAHMO).

That way, both you and the Meter Group support TAHMO in its aim to achieve a network of a total of 20,000 weather stations in Africa. Local farmers and fishermen will benefit most from the local real-time weather information and weather forecasts, that will become available through each weather station. This information is crucial because over 75 percent of the local population is dependent on agriculture and hence the weather. Professors Nick van de Giesen (Civil Engineering and Geosciences at TU Delft) and John Selker (Biological and Ecological Engineering, Oregon State University) designed the TAHMO low-maintenance weather stations with their research teams and partners. The weather stations are mostly located at schools so they can also be used in educational programs. Without these weather stations, there is no accurate weather information available in most places.

Download the free app and bring accurate weather in Africa closer with each step https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/every-meter-counts/id1185112162?mt=8

For more information about TAHMO click here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udKAu0Fr9hI


calendarTAHMO is attending various events, conferences, and seminars. Do you want to know when/where to find us? Please see the list below.