Christian Roth, Thavone Inthavong, Seng Vang and ACCA team Rice-based Systems Research: Regional Technical Workshop Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR)

1. Developing multi-scale strategies for farming
communities to adapt to climate change in
Cambodia, Laos, Bangladesh and India
ACIAR Technical Workshop in Vientiane, 13-15 June 2012
Christian Roth, Thavone Inthavong, Seng Vang and ACCA team

2. 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

3. The Project in a Nutshell
Outcomes
CLIMATE CHANGE
Stakeholder Evidence based climate change
engagement adaptation strategies at local and
provincial scales implemented
Development of adaptation Principles/priorities for action at
design principles local and provincial scale applied
Matching policy Farmers with enhanced adaptive
recommendations to typology capacity and improved livelihoods
based adaptation strategies
Limits to adaptation
recognised
Upscaling
Spatial transferability and
Climate analysis future climate adaptability of
Characterisation of adaptation options
climate variability
Location specific
CC projections
Scenario analysis
CLIMATE VARIABILITY
Understanding climate
sensitivity of farming systems On-farm research
Seasonal climate Testing of options
Matching adaptation options to
forecasting Confidence building
farming system typologies
Piloting of advisories More effective climate risk
(India, Laos) management
Model improvement Social research
Capacity building
Validation in new Understanding
Training in PAR
environments adaptive capacity
Communication aids
Testing new routines Household typologies

4. Social research
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
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

5. Social research
Developed templates to map adaptation strategies and practices
against household types
Example from Cambodia: Household Type D – Koul
Characteristics Constraints
Canal supplementary irrigated rice No irrigation
Large 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

6. Modelling
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)

7. On-farm research - overview
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.

8. Developing rice cropping strategies - Cambodia
1. Average or wet rainy season
Rainfall
RICE Medium
Dry season
1 Short 1 Short 2
CASH - CROPS
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Month

9. Developing rice cropping strategies - Cambodia
2. Dry rainy season
Rainfall
2
RICE Medium
Dry season
Short 1 Short 2
CASH - CROPS
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Month

10. On-farm research – example Cambodia
Second short duration rice growing on
• Using a drum seeder allows earlier second half wet season rainfall
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
Traditional medium rice still maturing
management

11. Calibration of model on CARDI dataset
• Phenology of Cambodian rice varieties
• Nitrogen fertiliser transformation in paddy systems
• Daily time step met data (model input data)
Modelled biomass
Observed
Modelled yield
Modelled pond depth

12. Scenario analysis – optimising planting dates
29 years of met data

13. Generating policy impacts
• 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

14. Generating community 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

15. Key linkages to date (ACIAR projects)
• 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

16. Where to from here?
• 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