Phnom Penh – How to better plan crop production against weather, pest and diseases? The Department of Plant Protection, Sanitary and Phytosanitary of the General Directorate of Agriculture (GDA), Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), in cooperation with the Department of Meteorology (DoM) of the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology (MoWRAM) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), have been joining hands to do just that. They have developed weather, pests and disease advisories, aiming at helping farmers to better plan their production. A virtual project’s dissemination workshop, conducted on 30 November 2020, the partners shared key results, lessons-learned, and challenges derived from the project implementation, and necessary follow-up actions.  

Agro-meteorology, by definition, is the study of weather and use of weather and climate information to protect and/or enhance agriculture production. The availability of agrometeorological information will allow farmers to take maximum advantage of favorable aspects of climate and minimizing harmful effects of weather.

Agro-meteorology expert, Mr Hideki Kanamaru of FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (RAP), explained that, “changes in weather patterns, climate extremes and climate-driven pests and diseases are negatively impacting agricultural production and rural livelihoods. Informed advisories, alerts and robust early-warning systems are essential for farmers and rural population to prepare for and adapt to changes in climate.”

In Cambodia, the capacity to use the weather and climate data, and translate them into advisory services for agriculture application is limited. There is a need to strengthen national institutions capacity to leverage national linkages and to develop and disseminate better agrometeorological information and early-warning systems for use in the agriculture sector. There is also a grand opportunity to harness technology for dissemination of actionable advisories to the farmers, in particular on pest and diseases.

Mr Oum Kosal, Assistant FAO Representative (Programme) explained that, “the core efforts of this pilot project have been the strengthening of national capacity in monitoring and collecting pest and disease incidences using standard protocols, and the development of agro-meteorological bulletins, using data collected from the fields, and weather monitoring and forecasts.”

“Despite difficulties posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the project was successfully implemented with the leadership of GDA of MAFF, in close collaboration with stakeholders, especially the Department of Meteorology of MoWRAM,” said Mr Heng Chhunhy, Deputy Director, Department of Plant Protection, Sanitary and Phytosanitary of GDA.

He commended the collaboration with FAO and MoWRAM through this very important project which started the agrometeorological bulletin, not available before.

This virtual workshop also provided opportunities for participants to share relevant experiences and identify opportunities for collaboration. The way forward to scale up this pilot initiative was also discussed, showing DeRISK  and FAO’s GEF7/LDCF as existing and planned initiatives with a strong potential to build on this achievement.

This project was conducted in three provinces of Cambodia, including Prey Veng, Battambang, and Banteay Meanchey. It is part of the boarder Asia-Pacific regional programme of FAO on agro-meteorology services, pest and disease alerts, and early warning systems for farmers, which is active in three other countries, Samoa, Nepal and Bhutan.