ACIAR Technical Workshop in Vientiane, 13-15 June 2012
Developing multi-scale strategies for farming communities to adapt to climate change in Cambodia, Laos, Bangladesh and India
Christian Roth, Thavone Inthavong, Seng Vang and ACCA team
ACCA project started in mid 2010; 4.5 year project in four countries
CSIRO: Peter Brown, Steve Crimp, Neal Dalgliesh, Don Gaydon, Zvi Hochman, Heidi Horan, Tanya Jakimow, Phil Kokic, Alison Laing, Uday Nidumolu, Perry Poulton, Christian Roth, Monica Van Wensveen, Liana Williams and others
Laos: Thavone Inthavong, Khanmany Khounphonh, Guillaume Lacombe, Vanthong Phengvichith, Silinthone Sacklokham, Pheng Sengxua, Sipaseuth, Khammone Thiravong, Xaysathid and others
Cambodia: Philip Charlesworth, EL Sotheary, LONH Le Non, MAK Soeun, MAO Minea, SAY Tom, SENG Vang, TOUCH Veasna and others
India: Suresh Kosaraju, Ravindra, Raji Reddy, Ratna Reddy, KK Singh, G Sreenivas, Chiranjeevi Tallapragada and others
Bangladesh: Zainul Abedin, Hazrat Ali, Sharmin Afroz, Iqbal Khan, Mahbubur Khan, Pranesh Kumar, Tao Li, Mamunur, Abdul Muttaleb, Harunur Rashid, Sanjida Ritu, M Sarker, Barkat Ullah and others
Consultants: Clemens Grünbühel, John Schiller
ACCA Team
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Climate analysis Characterisation of climate variabilityLocation specific
CC projections
Capacity buildingTraining in PAR
Communication aids
Model improvementValidation in new
environmentsTesting new routines
Social researchUnderstanding
adaptive capacityHousehold typologies
Scenario analysisUnderstanding climate
sensitivity of farming systemsMatching adaptation options to
farming system typologies
Outcomes
Evidence based climate change adaptation strategies at local and
provincial scales implemented
Principles/priorities for action at local and provincial scale applied
Farmers with enhanced adaptive capacity and improved livelihoods
Limits to adaptation recognised
On-farm researchTesting of options
Confidence building More effective climate risk
management
UpscalingSpatial transferability and
future climate adaptability of adaptation options
Stakeholder engagement
Seasonal climate forecasting
Piloting of advisories (India, Laos)
Development of adaptation design principles
Matching policy recommendations to typology based adaptation strategies
The Project in a Nutshell
Completed adaptive capacity assessments and household typology surveys.
– Brown, PR, IA Khan, VR Reddy, CM Grunbuhel, CH Roth, S Afroz and T Chiranjeevi (2012). Self-assessment of adaptive capacity to climate change by small-scale farmers in Asia – A pilot evaluation. Submitted to Global Environmental Change
Social research
Khan, IA and CM Grunbuhel (2011). Climate change and farming communities in Deltas: Coping with climate variability while adapting to Change. Technical Background Report - United Nations Development Programme: Bangkok
Jakimow, T (in press, accepted 23 Nov 2011). Using serious games to anticipate livelihood trajectories. Journal of Development Studies
Developed templates to map adaptation strategies and practices against household types
Example from Cambodia: Household Type D – Koul Characteristics ConstraintsCanal supplementary irrigated rice No irrigationLarge land size Small plots
Pond or community (lake) fishing System highly dependent on wage labour
Commercial vegetables Adaptation strategies & (practices)Specialisation (aromatic rice)Intensification of rice (double crop, mechanisation, varieties, nutrition, crop
husbandry)Diversification of farming system (vegetables/drip irrigation; forages + livestock?
aquaculture in ponds)Land consolidation
Social research
APSIM-ORYZA tested and validated on high quality IRRI datasets– Gaydon, DS, ME Probert, RJ Buresh, H Meinke, A Suriadi, A Doberman, B
Bouman and J Timsina, 2012: Rice in cropping systems – modelling transitions between flooded and non-flooded soil environments. Europ. J. Agronomy, 39:9-24.
– Gaydon DS, ME Probert, RJ Buresh, H Meinke and J Timsina, 2012: Modelling the role of algae in rice crop nutrition and soil organic carbon maintenance. Europ. J. Agronomy, 39:35-43.
APSIM-ORYZA validated on new datasets generated in Cambodia and Bangladesh
Sufficient confidence to use APSIM-ORYZA for scenario analysis in many rice based systems, but still need to address issues in some environments (e.g inundation, salinity)
Modelling
Wet & dry season testing of a range of adaptation practices on-farm to give farmers greater flexibility in responding to climate variability:
– India: changed sowing rules for cotton and maize; critical irrigation of cotton doubles yields; SRI in rice.
– Bangladesh: shorter duration and salinity tolerant rice varieties; cowpea and mungbeans as alternatives to dry season rice.
– Laos: improved varieties, eg. inundation tolerant rice varieties (TDK sub1); improved fertiliser practices; dry seeding of rice vs. transplanting.
– Cambodia: drum seeding; double cropping of two short duration rice crops vs. one traditional medium duration rice; fertiliser deep placement.
On-farm research - overview
Developing rice cropping strategies - Cambodia
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Developing rice cropping strategies - Cambodia
On-farm research – example Cambodia• Using a drum seeder allows earlier
planting of rice compared to traditional transplanting, with labour reductions of 24 man days for transplanting to 2 man days using the drum seeder
• This allows farmers to grow 2 short duration rice crops instead of one traditional medium duration crop, increasing overall annual rice production from ~2.5 t/ha to 4-6 t/ha
• Technology in early stages of testing; still needs some work to refine weed and residue management Traditional medium rice still maturing
Second short duration rice growing on second half wet season rainfall
• Phenology of Cambodian rice varieties• Nitrogen fertiliser transformation in paddy systems• Daily time step met data (model input data)
Calibration of model on CARDI dataset
Observed
Modelled biomass
Modelled yield
Modelled pond depth
Scenario analysis – optimising planting dates
29 years of met data
• Developed and implemented stakeholder engagement plans in each country; reviewed every 6 months
• At the policy level, targeted key policy makers for regular briefings or workshops; production of policy briefs India: AP Dept. of Rural Development & Dept. of Agriculture – linking CCA
to watershed development; Indian Meteorology Dept. – improving delivery and content of agroadvisories
Bangladesh: Comprehensive Disaster Risk Management Program – using ACCA typology methodology to better target adaptation strategies
Cambodia: Climate Change Dept. – ACCA to inform future CCA funding priorities under UNDP PPCR project; Svay Rieng Provincial Dept. of Agriculture – mainstream adaptation strategies into Commune Investment Planning
Generating policy impacts
• Leverage off NGOs and their other development initiatives: India: WASSAN – roll out climate risk
management through the Integrated Watershed Management Program; mainstream CCA into WSD
Cambodia: IDE – use Farmer Business Advisor program to disseminate adaptation practices (one FBA services 100-120 farmers; CIDA and EU funding FBA program to train >1000 FBAs)
• Train extension services in Laos and Cambodia to disseminate key project techniques
Generating community impacts
• Initial exchange between research teams in the ACCA project and the ACIAR rice establishment project (CSE-2009-037) and the ACIAR irrigation water management project (LWR-2009-046), particularly on direct seeding machinery and modelling capacity
• Regular interaction with the ACIAR policy project (ASEM-2009-023, Agricultural policies for the Mekong Region) and the socio-economic sub-project in the South Laos Project (CSE-2009-004), particularly in relation to household typologies
• Coordination of on-farm activities with the agronomic sub-project of the South Laos Project (CSE-2009-004)
• The SAARC project (LWR-2010-033, Capacity building in systems modelling) shares CSIRO personnel and is creating a critical mass of modelling expertise in Bangladesh
Key linkages to date (ACIAR projects)
• Use location specific climate projections to test impact of climate change on current cropping systems
• Conduct scenario analyses and future-proof current rice farming practices and new adaptation practices using APSIM-ORYZA parameterised for local environments and crop varieties
• Use the household typologies and generalised modelling to scale-up from case study sites
• Derive design principles and policy recommendations in collaboration with key stakeholders and policy makers
• Prepare for midterm review in Oct 2012
Where to from here?