United Nations Day: Climate Smart Initiative Update

Climate Smart Initiative

This past July, DTN participated as a thought leader in a side event of the United Nations’ High-Level Political Forum 2018 (HLPF) in New York City. The meeting was organized by the Permanent Mission of Kazakhstan to the United Nations to feature mechanisms for global partnerships and sustainable development. DTN had the opportunity to highlight its partnership with the International Informatization Academy (IIA), an NGO with General Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council since 1995.

Together, DTN and IIA launched the Climate Smart Initiative, which aims to address three of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by countries throughout the world in 2015. The Initiative will introduce innovative technologies in agriculture and climate monitoring that will increase food production, monitor and measure weather and climate in unmonitored rural areas, and reduce the impact of weather volatility and natural disasters on governments and civil society. Representatives from various government agencies, IIA, DTN, business organizations and others met to discuss how the Climate Smart Initiative’s technologies and solutions can help address world hunger and help the world’s farmers adapt to the changing climate.

“The Climate Smart Initiative is helping countries address the increasing impact of climate change and weather volatility on agriculture globally,” said Ron Sznaider, chief science officer at DTN. “Together with IIA, we are able to work with governments around the world and provide them access to weather and agriculture insights that can inform their policies and reduce the impact of weather volatility on their citizens.”

Climate Smart Leads to Precision Farming in Kazakhstan

This past September, DTN was invited to participate as the only foreign keynote speaker to the National Agricultural Exhibition & Conference, titled “Precision Farming Technology and Science”. Present were key farmers, politicians, and government officials representing the agricultural sector. The DTN presentation was titled “Precision Farming to Feed the World by DTN”. Kazakhstan has a goal to increase food production and exports by 40% by the year 2020. Its aim is to become the breadbasket of Asia. Kazakhstan is the first country in Asia to begin initiatives to digitize agriculture. Technologies for weather information, satellite imagery, and GPS technology are key to this initiative. Kazakhstan implemented a nationwide AG portal: www.Qoldau.kz 

Within this portal, DTN WeatherSentry Online is posted and viewed by over 100,000 farmers. The portal is a resource tool to the farming community to provide weather information decision tools, crop insurance, fuel, farming equipment rental, seeds, and fertilizers. Kazakhstan is one of the first countries in Asia to provide drought disaster insurance to farmers. Meetings were held with the city of Astana to discuss a city-wide safety program for city flooding and surface temperature for road treatment applications.

We are very pleased with how these meetings and presentations have gone and look forward to working further with more countries on the Climate Smart initiative.