This atlas is a study of climate and agroclimate in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic for the period 1990–2019 based on the downscaling of long-term observation data. It has been produced as part of the “Strengthening Agro-Climatic Monitoring and Information Systems (SAMIS) to improve adaptation to climate change and food security in Lao People’s Democratic Republic project. It aims to support the achievement of the Lao government’s priority targets, as set out in the country’s Ninth National Socio-Economic Development Plan (2021–2025).The Department of Meteorology and Hydrology (DMH) is the main body responsible for the national climate database and producing climate statistics. The Department of Agricultural Land Management (DALAM) also provided expertise in the use of advanced downscaling technologies. This Atlas presents the results of the work carried out by these bodies. The information describes in detail the country’s climate and how it has changed over the last 30 years.

The leaflet presents the activities of the second component of the project “Strengthening Agro-climatic Monitoring and Information Systems (SAMIS)”. In collaboration with the Department of Agricultural Land Management (DALaM) under the Ministry of Agriculture (MAF) has, with the financial support of FAO Laos and technical support from the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) and FAO experts, produced the national level agro-ecological zoning (AEZ) mapping process. The AEZ aims to define the potential use of zones where crops can be growth based on climate, soil, crop cycle, and crop management practices, resulting in maps of suitability and potential yields. The maps have been generated using a software, called pyAEZ, produced with the project's support. The suitability maps for today and the future, using climate scenario as an input, are, in both technical standard and input data quality, state of the art. Lao People’s Democratic Republic  is the first country, globally, to implement the AEZ system using national data and national capacity exclusively. The SAMIS AEZ delivery model has shifted demands for expertise to the regional and local levels.The AEZ allows policymakers to look ahead and adjust policies now to prepare for climate-related changes that will affect the prosperity of the country. Also, it helps to assess alternatives for future cropping systems and it guides establishing priority crop plan and future-proof land allocation to specific crop productions. Ultimately, the results from the scenario modeling will be uploaded to the Land Resources Information Management System (LRIMS).

Agricultural meteorology deals with the meteorological, hydrological, pedological and biological factors that affect agricultural production as well as the interaction between agriculture and the environment. This training manual is developed for the Training of Trainers (TOT) to effectively implement agro-meteorology at the local level through multiple methodologies tested in Lao PDR, such as climate field schools and group approaches, public announcement systems (loudspeakers), and school programmes. The manual is developed for the use of the Laos Climate Service for Agriculture (LaCSA) online system developed under the Global Environment Facility (GEF)-funded project Strengthening Agro-climatic Monitoring and Information Systems (SAMIS) to improve adaptation to climate change and food security in Lao PDR. It is aimed for TOT, and the design is flexible so that any modules or lessons can be extracted and applied in field-level staff training with some local adjustments. The training can also help fill gaps between the producers of agrometeorological services and the farmers’ actual needs to improve their livelihood.

The leaflet presents the activities of the second component of the project “Strengthening Agro-climatic Monitoring and Information Systems (SAMIS) to improve adaptation to climate change and food security in Lao PDR” held in collaboration with the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) De Risk project (Applying seasonal climate forecasting and innovative insurance solutions to climate risk management in the agriculture sector in South East Asia.The Department of Agricultural Land Management (DALaM) under the Ministry of Agriculture (MAF) and the National Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute (NAFRI) have produced the first national livelihood and adaptive capacity dataset in the country. It has been generated using an innovative method merging participatory mapping, and advanced data treatment and is, in both, technical standard and scientific innovation, state of the art. With the collaboration of more than 300 district and province officials, Lao People’s Democratic Republic is thus the first country in its economic class to produce a map of this kind. National teams now can manage the production and further development of high-quality outputs independently.

The leaflet presents the methodologies used by the project “Strengthening Agro-climatic Monitoring and Information Systems (SAMIS) to improve adaptation to climate change and food security in Lao PDR” to get climate services to farmers. In collaboration with the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology (DMH) and the Department of Agriculture and Land Management (DALaM) the project tested a number of pathways to give farmers access to the Lao Climate Service for Agriculture (LaCSA): village’ public announcement systems, radio, school posters, app, TV, and Farmer Field Schools (FFS)