Rice is the primary staple in Mali, forming the backbone of livelihoods for rural farm households who rely on rice farming for food security and income. However, the country is highly vulnerable to extreme weather events, including droughts, floods, irregular rainfall, and heatwaves, which have increasingly threatened rice production. In 2025, severe flooding in key rice-producing villages in the Sikasso and Segou regions destroyed entire crops, highlighting the urgent need for tools that help farmers adapt to climate variability. Limited exposure to climate information services (CIS) and gaps in capacity among farmers, extension agents, and other stakeholders have amplified the risks to livelihoods. Strengthening access to climate information and integrating it into agricultural decision-making is therefore critical to enhancing productivity, resilience, and sustainability in Mali’s rice sector.
From 2022 to 2025, the AICCRA Mali project has worked to scale CIS innovations across the main rice-growing regions of Segou, Koulikoro, and Sikasso. The project employed participatory methods, collaborating with the National Meteorological Agency (Mali-Météo), Orange Mali, local NGOs, extension agents, and farmers to identify context-specific climate solutions. Through workshops, field schools, demonstrations, and digital dissemination channels such as SMS, WhatsApp, radio, and voice calls, over 310,000 farmers received tailored climate guidance. This information, including rainfall onset and cessation and recommendations for drought- or flood-tolerant rice varieties, has helped farmers adjust planting schedules, improve yields, increase income, and strengthen climate resilience, particularly benefiting women farmers.
In November 2025, a one-day capacity-building workshop in Bamako brought together 21 participants, including researchers, extension agents, NARES members, service providers, and lead farmers from the major rice-producing regions. The workshop used participatory knowledge-sharing, practical demonstrations, and group discussions to strengthen participants’ understanding of CIS and digital platforms. Tools like Maproom Mali and AgDataHub were showcased, illustrating how historical, meteorological, agricultural, soil, and satellite data can be transformed into actionable insights for climate-smart farming. Participants were trained to navigate these platforms, interpret data, and apply climate information to real-world rice farming decisions, while also discussing challenges such as limited internet access, technical capacity, and institutional coordination.
The workshop highlighted key lessons from scaling CIS innovations via digital platforms. Success was strongly linked to localized, user-friendly information delivered in local languages, participatory feedback loops with users, and institutional ownership of platforms within national agricultural plans. While digital tools are essential, human intermediaries such as extension agents and lead farmers remain critical for ensuring effective adoption and application. The interactive sessions reinforced collaboration between meteorological experts, extension agents, and farmers, enhancing confidence in digital tools and fostering shared ownership of climate information services.
Overall, the AICCRA Mali workshop demonstrated how digital platforms, coupled with capacity-building and participatory approaches, can significantly support climate-resilient rice farming. Platforms like Maproom and AgDataHub, alongside SMS, WhatsApp, voice calls, and radio, provide farmers with timely, actionable climate information. The workshop underscored the importance of continuous training, improved connectivity, regular data updates, and strong institutional support to sustain the inclusive scaling of climate information services. These efforts are critical for empowering rice farmers in Mali to make informed decisions, increase productivity, and build long-term resilience against climate shocks.
