On 11, 12 and 16 November 2021, the FAO’s Research and Extension Unit met virtually with participants from the Cambodia Conservation Agriculture and Sustainable Intensification Consortium (CASIC – website here) to deliver a participatory training on policy dialogue. The training, conducted in the framework of the EU-funded TAP-AIS project on strengthening Agricultural Innovation Systems (AIS), focused on the process of influencing public policy, from how to organize policy dialogue events to communicating policy messages and preparing effective policy briefs.

The training was attended by 17 high level participants from the inter-ministerial consortium (CASIC) representing the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), the Cambodian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI), the Royal University of Agriculture (RUA), and Swisscontact, among others. H.E. Dr. Yoeu Asikin (Undersecretary of State of MAFF and Vice Chair of the CASIC Steering Committee) and H.E. Dr. Chan Saruth (Undersecretary of State of MAFF and Chair of CASIC Executive Board) both attended the full training and made significant contributions, which focused on how to apply the policy dialogue approach to the promotion of agricultural innovation, particularly for conservation agriculture (CA) and sustainable intensification (SI) in Cambodia.

At the opening, H.E. Dr. Asikin held a keynote speech on the existing policy and strategy for agricultural development and she emphasized that while the existing policy framework in Cambodia is relevant to CA and SI, there is no explicit mention of these terms. Therefore, she pointed out the need to adapt existing policies to better reflect and accelerate the adoption of CA and SI.

The guidance and contributions H.E. Dr. Chan Saruth provided throughout the three days of training were instrumental to its success. He emphasized the importance of a bottom-up approach to policy making, starting with the identification of needs and demand at producer level and leading to policy solutions to address those needs.

The training resulted in the prioritization of several policy-relevant issues, including the issue of limited access to inputs (especially machinery) for CA, limited incentive for multi-stakeholder collaboration and the need to raise awareness around, adapt and implement policies to enable innovation in promoting and adopting CA and SI.

Moving forward, CASIC will address these prioritized issues in a series of policy dialogue events which will take place during the first half of 2022 and establish a sub-national platform to facilitate better multi-stakeholder collaboration on CA in Rathanak Mundul district, Batambang, with close collaboration and support from FAO.  In addition, FAO’s TAP-AIS project will work closely with CASIC to strengthen the capacity of its members to influence and foster positive policy changes to support conservation agriculture and sustainable intensification in Cambodia.