GLOSSARY
Agricultural Calendar : A decision-making and advisory tool for planning, managing and monitoring agricultural activities. It presents the types of agricultural crops (maize, cocoa, beans, etc.), the agricultural operations (field preparation, sowing, maintenance, etc.) in a given agro-ecological zone (Sudano-Sahelian, Guinea High Savannah, Bimodal Rain forest, Highland and Monomodal Rain forest).
Climate: All the meteorological elements and phenomena (temperature, atmospheric pressure, precipitation, wind, etc.) and their dynamics in time and space (expressed in seasons) that characterise a given place or a specific geographical area over a long period (at least 30 years according to the WMO).
La Niña is a cold marine current, an unusual climatic phenomenon that generally occurs every 2 to 7 years in the equatorial Pacific and particularly along the coasts of Latin America. It is characterized by the upwelling of oceanic waters from the depth to the surface. These waters are usually highly nutrient-rich. It affects the global circulation of the atmosphere, and its consequences are global: modification of wind patterns, rainfall, and the appearance of extreme weather situations such as floods, extreme droughts, etc.).
El Niño is a warm marine current (opposite La Niña), characterized by an increase in the temperature of the ocean surface. It is a large-scale oceanic phenomenon that takes place in the equatorial Pacific, with a periodicity of 2 to 5 years. It affects the large-scale global circulation of the atmosphere and the wind regime. El Niño is the warm phase of the coupled ocean/atmosphere phenomenon known as ENSO (El Niño Southern Oscillation).
Climate variability : Variations in meteorological parameters (temperature, rainfall, etc.) around a mean on seasonal and inter-annual time scales in a given region.
Climate change : Also known as climate disruption, it corresponds to a lasting change (from a decade to a million years) in the statistical parameters (average parameters, variability, etc.) of the earth’s global climate or its various regional climates. These changes may be due to processes intrinsic to the earth, to external influences or more recently to human activities.
Agro-ecological zone : A geographical unit defined in terms of climate, geomorphology and soils, and/or vegetation cover and having a specific range of potentials and constraints for land use. Cameroon has five agroecological zones, namely the Sudano-Sahelian, Guinean High Savannah, Bimodal Rain forest, High Plateaux and Monomodal Rain forest zones.
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