LaCSA now includes national level drought alerts
After more than three year of operation, the LaCSA has become an established reality in the digital agriculture system of Lao PDR. LaCSA has been used with farmers groups, loudspeakers, or school posters and weekly TV broadcast, Facebook, and radios.
In order to further expand the use of the LaCSA tools to the drought alerts, FAO has worked with the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology (DMH) and with the Department of Climate Change (DCC), both under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE).
A new tool has been first tested for various years and now it is available into the LaCSA. The new tool allow to automatically produce national maps of risk of droughts and related information. It is expecially focused on the preparation of simple visualization of the national seasonal forecast-based early warning for agricultural disasters such as droughts and heat waves. Also, because the information about drought and heat waves influences pest and deseases, the same tool is also input a new national level the pests and diseases alert. The result of this new tool is the most suited for tv show screening because it allows to have a user-friendly bird-eye visualization at the district and province level.
The GEF-funded project "Strengthening agro-climatic monitoring and information systems to the adaptation to climate change and food security in Lao PDR" (SAMIS project) is ongoing since more five years. The project is implemented by FAO and it is leaded by the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology in MONRE, in collaboration with the Department of Agricultural Land Management in MAF. Other participants to the activities include at MONRE the Department of Climate Change and in MAF the NAFRI, the Plant Protection Center, and the Department of Planning and Cooperation.
This morning, 9th of September, Dr Kim Kwang Hyung, the scientific coordinator of LaCSA and long-term SAMIS expert, and and Dr Jaepil Cho, Director of the Convergence Center for Watershed Management in the Integrated Watershed Management Institute in South Korea, have completed today the training for DMH officials. The training was held at DMH in the premises of the Weather Forecast Departments. Participants now can work with the relevant algorithms and models that are used to develop the drought forecasting bulletin in LaCSA and can use it for regular DMH droughts alerts.
The new drought forecasting tool is available here:
LaCSA - Web - National Weekly Agromet Bulletin (district level, 7 days)
LaCSA - Web - National Monthly Agromet Bulletin (province level, monthly)