ICIMOD is developing an integrated information platform linking weather and climate data with agriculture practices in the region. The platform provides data analysis support to professionals responsible for developing agro-met advisories for government agencies and farmers. The web-based service on the National agricultural drought watch for Nepal has been developed in collaboration with Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development and ICIMOD under the SERVIR Hindu Kush Himalaya (SERVIR-HKH) Initiative. It provides information on the in-season drought situation and outlook

National agricultural drought watch System provides baselines on crop type maps and farming practices calendars valid at the district level, and multiple indices evapotranspiration, precipitation rate, standardized precipitation index, soil moisture, and temperature for droughts and seasonal weather outlooks at the national and regional levels. These can inform short- to medium-term agro-advisories. Users can already explore historical time-series data on the five indices over 18 years aggregated in decadal, monthly, and quarterly sets. The system provides 9 months forecast for various parameters.

Acknowledgements: Development of the Regional Drought Monitoring and Outlook System for South Asia and associated Agriculture Drought Watch System for Bangladesh was supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The Climate Services for Resilient Development (CSRD) Initiative and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) also collaborated on the development of the system. The front-end application has been hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS) the GEO-AWS Earth Observation Cloud Credits Programme.