Promoting and scaling Agro-Climatic Bulletins (ACB) for smallholder farmers in Vietnam

CGIAR Initiative on Asian Mega Deltas participated in the MARD-CGIAR co-hosted forum on 28 November 2022 held in Hanoi, Vietnam. AMD-Focus Area 3 and building on the agro-climatic bulletin (ACB) process and its journey towards scaling in the Mekong River Delta was presented highlighting lessons learned through this presentation

Over 100,000 Laotian farmers use the seasonal climate forecasts and weekly agro-advisories disseminated via Laos climate services for agriculture to improve crop management

In Laos, farmers are using the validated agro-climatic advisories from the Alliance-supported Strengthening Agro-climatic Monitoring and Information System to improve their farming practices, such as crop variety, planting dates, and water and fertilizer applications. These advisories were integrated into the Laos Climate Services for Agriculture (LaCSA) system which disseminates information to over 100,000 farmers through farmer field schools, loudspeaker broadcasts, Whatsapp and Facebook. It is currently at the operational stage. In Lao PDR, the GEF-funded and FAO-implemented project Strengthening Agro-climatic Monitoring and Information System (SAMIS) has advanced climate services for agriculture. With its strong relationship with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) and Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE), SAMIS generates and delivers climate information for agricultural planning and decision-making at national, provincial, district and village levels. The strong interest and willingness of both SAMIS and The Alliance- supported DeRISK SE Asia projects to collaborate and work together in generating impact at scale have brought significant technical advances and useful content to the Laos Climate Services for Agriculture (LaCSA) system. The collaboration, which started with DeRISK supporting specific training topics and activities for SAMIS, has expanded organically into various areas of work such as: i) development of cropping calendars for provinces and districts (both English and Lao languages); ii) development of tailored agro-climatic advisories disseminated on weekly basis at district level and seasonal scale at provincial level for irrigated, rainfed and lowland rice, maize, cassava, banana, coffee, pumpkin, livestock, cabbage; SAMIS is using official website, Facebook, Whatsapp, at provincial and district levels and loudspeaker and school posters in villages as communication channels for dissemination; iii) development of field level crop monitoring tool for near real time monitoring and information sharing using Kobo tool with pending Ministerial Order from MAF endorsing the tool as official field data collection for LaCSA; iv) assessment of adaptive capacity of agricultural livelihoods to be use for national adaptation planning; v) support to develop M&E data collection tools, analysis and reporting. The tools and approaches introduced by DeRISK have been taken up by SAMIS and currently being applied and integrated into LaSCA system and its processes. Over 85% of target population changed practices as a result of access to agro-advisories from loudspeakers. Strategic planning related to selection of crop varieties, planting dates and water management were the main responses from farmers because of access to advisories. Most of farmers (>80%) claimed to have adjusted farming practices based on SAMIS bulletins received from community speaker, whether or not they have received additional intervention by attending FFS (Field Farmers Schools)

Participatory vegetable and seed system development enabled ethnic minority farmers in Northern Vietnam to form local value chain networks and increase production 5-7-fold.

Through participatory vegetable and seed system development, ethnic minority farmers in target sites were organized in value chain groups to jointly produce and market various vegetable seeds/seedlings and vegetables. With the support of project partner and local partners, the groups’ capacity to identify market opportunities and engage with value chain actors improved, whereby production increased by 5-7 times, from 70 to 400 tons after two years. Group and individual incomes also increased, and one group proceeded to register as a cooperative

Dietary health clubs for ethnic minority women in Northern Vietnam improved diet quality through vegetable and nutrition capacity building and seed access.

Dietary health clubs were formed as a platform for creating awareness and exchanging information and skills on vegetables (seeds, production) and nutrition to enhance demand for and utilization of diverse vegetables and quality seeds. The club facilitators have increased their agency as change agents and sources of information in the villages. There was an increase in ethnic minority women members’ access to information, improved knowledge and skills, and enhanced household vegetable availability and consumption and dietary diversity. This is contributing to household nutrition security

Over 130,000 farmers in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam, have used timely weather forecasts and advisories to improve farm decisions, leading to higher yields and profits

Through "Local Technical Agroclimatic Committees" (LTACs) and multiple media, timely Agro-Climatic Bulletins are being disseminated to over 130,000 farmers (520,000 beneficiaries) in 351 communities in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta and South-Central Coast. Based on a sample survey of 202 farmers in one province, the use of this information has enabled farmers to increase their rice yields and revenue significantly. The LTAC model was developed in Latin America by CIAT and has been successfully adapted to the southeast Asian context

Willingness to Pay for Weather-Indexed Insurance: Evidence from Cambodian Rice Farmers

This study examines Cambodian rice farmers’ willingness to pay for the weather-indexed insurance (WII) proposed to manage the financial impact of shifting monsoon rainfall patterns in Battambang Province in north-western Cambodia. Detailed interviews are conducted in the districts of Bavel and Thma Koul. We first analyse farmer respondents’ socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, climate change perceptions and experience, risk attitudes, and awareness of insurance. The binary logistic model is used to identify factors that significantly impact farmers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for WII. Our results show that farmers in general had lower awareness of how to use innovative financial products to adapt to extreme weather. The results also demonstrate that farmer respondents’ marital status, the number of off-farm labourers, and the farm size have a positive effect, whereas the number of children in the household has a negative effect on farmers’ WTP for WII. Specifically, being married, an increase of one off-farm labourer, and an increase of one hectare (ha) of farmland increase the probability of demand for WII by 38.6%, 21.4%, and 5.1%, respectively. In contrast, an increase of one child reduces the probability of WII demand by 9.7%. We also identify challenges confronted by Cambodian farmers for participating in the proposed WII scheme and provide relevant recommendations to overcome these challenges

Training Report. Agro-climatic bulletin development and dissemination in Mekong River Delta, Vietnam

This training report summarizes the joint activity between the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) – Department of Crop Production (DCP) on training on agro-climatic bulletin (ACB) development and dissemination in February 2022. Six provinces in Mekong Delta specifically An Giang, Can Tho, Hau Giang, Soc Trang, Kien Giang, and Tra Vinh actively participated and committed to adopting the ACB process in their provinces through selected districts. This was part of the scaling process of ACB implementation in Vietnam