In 2000, the South Asia Demonstration Project was initiated. This effort was based upon pilot activities in the region (supported by START and NOAA-OGP) conducted by Dr. Sulochana Gadgil and associates in Banglore, India, Dr. Holger Meinke in Australia and colleagues from the Tamil Nadu University in South India.

The project was designed as a scoping study and served as a stepping-stone towards a well-integrated research and delivery program that addresses more comprehensively those aspects of climate risk that impede agricultural production in developing countries. Using locations in Southern Asia as case studies, this project demonstrated the utility and feasibility of combining seasonal climate forecasting with a structured, agricultural systems research approach based on simulation modeling. The project provided the means to assess the potential value of seasonal climate forecasting to agricultural producers in the Asia-Pacific region.

Project partners include:
1. APSRU/CSIRO, Australia
2. Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India
3. Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, India
4. Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, India
5. Bogor Agricultural University, Indonesia
6. Pakistan Agricultural Research Council, Pakistan
7. International Research Institute for Climate Prediction, USA

Related publications:
Selvaraju, R., 2003. Impact of El Niño-Southern Oscillation on Indian foodgrain production. Int. J. Climatol. 23:187-206.

Selvaraju, R., Meinke, H., Hansen, J.W. Management responses to seasonal climate forecasts in southern India’s dryland cropping systems. To be submitted to Agric. Syst.

Krishna Kumar, K., Rupa Kumar, K., Ashrit, R.G., Deshpande, N.R., Hansen, J.W., Climate impacts on Indian agriculture. Submitted to Int. J. Climatol.

Hansen, J.W. An international sampling of agricultural applications of seasonal climate forecasts. In: Proceedings of the Seasonal Climate Forecasts in Agriculture Conference, Coimbatore, 26 September 2002. Tamil Nadu Agric. Univ., in press.

Meinke, H., Stone, R.C., Seasonal and inter-annual climate forecasting: the new tool for increasing preparedness to climate variability and change in agricultural planning and operations. Climatic Change, in press.

Meinke, H., Abawi, Y., Stone, R.C., Hammer, G.L., Potgieter, A.B., Nelson, R.A., Howden, S.M, Baethgen, W., Selvaraju, R., 2003. Climate risk management and agriculture in Australia and beyond: Linking research to practical outcomes. Invited paper, Asian International Conference on Total Disaster Risk Management, Kobe, Japan, 2-4 December 2003.

Meinke, H., Howden, S.M., Baethgen, W., Hammer, G.L., Selvaraju, R. and Stone, R.C., 2003. Can climate knowledge lead to better rural policies and risk management practices? Proceedings, NOAA Office of Global Programs Workshop, Insights and Tools for Adaptation: Learning from Climate Variability, November 2003.

Meinke, H., Howden, S.M., Selvaraju, R., 2003. Australia’s experience in the development and application of climate information to reduce vulnerability to extreme events. Invited paper, Pacific Science Congress, Bangkok, 17-21 March 2003

Gadgil Sulochana and P R Seshagiri Rao, 2000: Farming strategies for a variable climate - A challenge, Current Science 78,10,1203-1215.

Gadgil Sulochana and Sajani Surendran, 1998: Monsoon precipitation in the AMIP runs, Climate Dynamics, 14:659-689.

Gadil Sulochana, 1995: Climate change and agriculture: an Indian perspective. Current Sci. 69:649-659.