Strengthening Agro-climatic Monitoring and Information System (SAMIS)

The Training of Trainers for Farmer Field School on Agro-Meteorology at National Level

12/04/2019

The training of trainers (ToT) for Farmer Field School (FFS)’s staff who will be responsible for the agrometeorology system as called LaCSA (Laos Climate Services for Farmers) was held between  8th to  12th April 2019 at the Department of Agriculture Land Management (DALaM), Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE)..

The training objectives were:

  • To develop technical knowledge and skills on FFS Save&Grow method
  • To train government officers from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forest (MAF) and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) in management of FFS using,  weather forecasts and alerts as well as  agro-meteorology
  • To learn about similar interventions for  applying  agro-meteorology and agro-advisory in FFS from other countries

The opening remarks were delivered by co-chair Mr. Anoloth Chanthavongsa as a Deputy Director General of the Department of Agricultural Land Management (DALaM), and Mr. Chanthalath Pongmala as an Assistant FAOR (Programme). There were 29 participants from the District Agriculture and Forestry Office (DAFO) and from the District of Natural Resources and Environment (DONRE) of Champhone and Sing district as well as the Provincial of Agricultural Land Management Office (PALaM) / Provincial of Natural Resources and Environment (PONRE) of LuangNamtha and Savannakhet provinces. Also, DALaM’s officers participated in entire training programmes. The training was facilitated by Arief Lukman Hakim, FFS’s expert from the Field Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) in Indonesia and supported by Krishna Prasad Pant, Expert and Chief Technical Advisor of a project in Nepal, which is similar to the Lao project. Furthermore, Mr. Oloth Sengtaheuanghoung, Head of the Agriculture Land Utilization Planning Center (ALUPC) of DALaM and Mr. Boualaithong Koumphonh, Deputy Director of Climate and Agro-meteorology Division (CAgMD) of the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology (DMH), MONRE, had significantly contributed in this training

The ToT training mostly focused on sharing of experiences and lesson learnt from Indonesia and Nepal on Agro-meteorology, which was able to  adapt and use with FFS in Laos such as farmers’ perception of climate change and related risk assessment, soil fertility, pest and disease management, weed control, etc.