Strengthening Agro-climatic Monitoring and Information System (SAMIS)

LaCSA introduced to farmers to improve climate resilience at district level

05/06/2020

The Department of Agricultural Land Management with the Plant Protection Center of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, in the framework of the FAO GEF project “Strengthening Agro-climatic Monitoring and Information Systems (SAMIS) to improve adaptation to climate change and food security in Lao PDR” are starting the second year of field testing of the Laos Climate Services for Agriculture (LaCSA) system. The demo LaCSA system is available at: http://147.46.250.219:8081/ with a new user friendly interface that can be visualized in smart phones easily. This tool is produced by the Department of Meteorology (DMH) and is available at the Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/samisdmh.

 

During the rainy season, new field tests in agro-meteorology and use of the LaCSA system will happen in various provinces around the country. At field level, FAO will collaborate with the. At local level, the project will collaborate with the Provincial of Agricultural Land Management Center (PALaM) and with the District Office of Agriculture. In detail, during the last two weeks the activities have started in two main locations. First, in Champhone district, Savannakhet, to deliver agrometeorological information to farmers at seven villages (Kadarn, Laonat, Phaleng, Dongmeuang, Nakathang, Lamthen and Xe) in Champhone. The 80-90% of Farmer’s Laonat and Kadarn village decided to test rice direct seedling because the seasonal forecast inform that rainfall will come normally at the end of July this year.

Second, in Luang Namtha, the project supports the villages of Poung, Namthoung and Mai in Namtha district and Patoy and Silimoun in Sing district. The intervention focuses mostly on the integrated pest management of rice based on the LaCSA recommendation.

At village level, beyond the constitution of farmer groups, the activities have included the training of one person that is able to read the bulletins at the public announcement system. For this, an expert from the Lao National Radio has trained village level officials to be able to read the information to farmers fluently in pasalao, and to discuss the information in a simple and clear manner.