Events

CHAIRPERSON

Dr Michelle Miller, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore

ABSTRACT

The increasing variability of climate, the global warming, and the more frequent and severe extreme events as the risks of climate change led to the emergence of unprecedented vulnerabilities in agriculture. The occurrence of irregular climate phenomena such as El Niño and La Niña of the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) has further implications on the changing rainfall patterns in the monsoon climate zones. Such changes have further consequences on the farmers’ habitual seasonal practices. By pursuing their traditional strategies and relying on their empirical experiences, farmers’ knowledge was not always helpful in responding to those “unexpected problems” in their fields. Unfortunately, the short-term training on climate in a limited duration of learning or technological transfer only could not help farmers to cope better to the risks of climate change. The ongoing irregular changes of climate fell beyond farmers’ ability to understand and to respond accordingly.

A long-term educational commitment in providing climate services to farmers is thus necessary. By considering the complex nature of climate and its implications on agriculture, an interdisciplinary collaboration between scientists from different disciplines is urgent. Without any inclusive participation by farmers themselves through a collaborative work, the long-term educational commitment would not be sustainable. This presentation provides an illustration of how an applied agrometeorological learning through an anthropological approach by involving farmers as researchers in their own fields have been carried out in several regencies in Indonesia from 2008 till present time. The Science Field Shops is the name of the arena in which farmers continuously learn to develop response farming to climate change.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Yunita Triwardani Winarto is Emeritus Professor in Anthropology, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Indonesia; Academy Professor Indonesia in Social Sciences and Humanities under the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) and the Indonesian Academy of Sciences (AIPI), and a member of the Cultural Commission of the Indonesian Academy of Sciences (AIPI). She received her bachelor from Padjadjaran University, first and second degree in anthropology from Universitas Indonesia; Master of Science in environmental technology from the Centre of Environmental Technology, Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine (UK); and PhD degree in anthropology from the Department of Anthropology, the Australian National University. Her field of studies are in human ecology and public anthropology focusing on farmers’ empowerment, creativity, and the dialectics between scientific and local knowledge in Indonesia and some Southeast Asian countries, and response farming to climate change and variability. In collaboration with an agrometeorologist, she introduced agrometeorological learning to help farmers coping better with climate change. She publishes Seeds of Knowledge: The Beginning of Integrated Pest Management in Java (2004); Agrometeorological Learning: Coping Better with Climate Change (co-editor with C.J. Stigter, 2011), some edited books, numerous articles in the refereed journals, and edited manuscripts.

REGISTRATION

Registration is closed, and instructions on how to participate in this webinar has been sent out to registered attendees. Please write to aritm@nus.edu.sg if you would like to attend the webinar.