Agricultural Meteorology for a Climate Smart Agriculture. Course Report

The WMO-RTC (World Meteorological Organization - Regional Training Centre) run in Italy by the Institute of BioEconomy of the National research Council is part of a Network of Centres whose main aim is to promote education and training in meteorology, hydrology, climate and related areas. The Italian Centre, since it was established in Florence, is offering training in agrometeorology, agroclimatology, climate impacts, disaster risk reduction and climate services and communication, with short-term courses and workshops, long-term stages, rowing seminars, training events on demand. Training solutions adopted include Face-to-Face events, Distance Learning, and E-Learning packages for self-paced learning. In 2020 the Italian Association of Agrometeorology (AIAM) launched the 1st Edition of the International Advanced School in Agricultural Meteorology, and the WMO-RTC, in agreement with AIAM and the important contribution of FAO, designed and put in place a new course on Climate Smart Agriculture to be held face-to-face at CNR headquarters in Rome. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the format of the school was completely revised, the course opened to a much wider audience (43 students from 19 Countries) and run (synchronous) fully online. The success of the school was determined by several factors including: the theme of the school, the expertise of appointed trainers, and the use of an easy to use e-learning platform like Moodle. In addition, the continuous support ensured by the technical staff, the role played by facilitators and chairs of the sessions, and the cohesion of the scientific committee and technical staff were all ingredients contributing to the success of this online learning initiative.