The Department of Physics of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and the International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Italy are jointly organizing the second “ewiem nimdie” International Summer School on the theme “weather and climate forecasting in Africa and its application to Agriculture and water Resources Management”. The opening ceremony for the two weeks programme was held on Monday at the conference hall of the KNUST. Adrian Tompkins of the ICTP, who spoke to Focus news in an interview said the aim of the summer school is to bring students, researchers and forecasters from Africa and around the world to participate in field studies, lectures as well as practical in west African Meteorology and climate, short range forecasting and seasonal forecasting and Applications in Agriculture and water resources management. The Summer School forms part of the ICTP training and capacity building programmes in meteorology and climate science for Africa; and is funded by a grant from the Italian foreign Affairs ministry. Prof. W.O Ellis, Pro-Vice Chancellor who delivered the welcome address on behalf of the Vice-Chancellor of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, said that although our part of the world is prone to natural disasters which are climate related, we lack the needed capacity to manage effectively, climate related environmental problems as a result of the lack of expertise in climate studies. He said it was in response to this that KNUST now has in place the Meteorology and Climate Science programme to train experts in the field to better understand, assess and monitor the potential impact of climate change to be able to establish a sound scientific basis for developing effective adaptation and mitigation measures at all levels in the country. The Deputy Communications Minister, Hon. Gideon Quarcoo, for his part stated that being a predominantly Agriculture – based economy, needs to build capacity to generate more meteorologists and climate scientists to provide professional leadership in vital areas such as agriculture, fisheries, water sector, weather forecasting, aviation as well as disaster mitigation. He says the Ministry of Communications will provide the needed support to ensure the right caliber of trained professionals are produced to beef up the human capital of Gmet, to take up challenging responsibility of climate related issues. He advocates the dissemination of weather and forecasting information to farmers on their mobile phones. By Bernard Buachi, KNUST, Kumasi