Among all economic activities, the agriculture sector has been one of the sectors most directly affected by droughts. Drought conditions frequently remain unnoticed until water shortages become severe and adverse impacts on environment and society become evident.

Climate change is likely to increase the frequency and severity of meteorological and agricultural droughts. While it is impossible to control the occurrence of droughts, the resulting impacts may be mitigated through appropriate surveillance and management strategies.

A key decision support tool for crisis mitigation is embedded within the concept of early warning information systems. The BEACON Damage Prognosis and Early Warning provides forecasted weather events alerts to Agricultural Insurance providers enabling them to push notifications and predefined mitigation measures to their customers-farmers.