Local Technical Agroclimatic Committees - LTAC

These committees are useful where farmers are highly vulnerable to different climatic phenomena that have caused losses in their crops and a reduction in their productivity.

Click here to check the infographic 'Transforming Farmers' Lives In Latin America'

This innovation was developed initially in Colombia, and now has been adopted and adapted for several institutions across Latin America. Currently, the LTAC approach is being implemented in ten countries across the region with 35 LTACs in place, over 266 locals to national institutions involved and 240,000 farmers being able to access agroclimatic information to plan their crops.

An Outcome Harvesting study, published in 2020, identified five areas where positive changes in actions, relationships, policies, and practices have been observed: i) greater confidence in the quality of climate and agroclimatic information at the local level; ii) enhanced knowledge, understanding, and connection of agroclimatic information; iii) democratization of climate knowledge; iv) transformations in agricultural practices, and v) political advocacy and institutional transformation. Over 140 outcomes or changes were verified in these areas.

Climate Advisory Services for Agriculture: Bridging the Last Mile -Experience from Vietnam

Vietnam’s climate conditions have greatly affected the vulnerability of its local agriculture. In 2020, the region lost US$ 10 billion as a result of the impacts of climate change. Additionally, in 2022, 874 hectares of rice and 4,445 hectares of other crops in many areas of Vietnam were flooded due to Typhoon Noru.  

A recent study estimated that with a one-degree increase in temperature, yields of rice - the main crop of the Red River Delta, the Mekong River Delta, and most of Vietnam’s agro-ecological regions - could decrease by 7.09 percent. The World Bank Group also emphasized that increasing threats of drought and saltwater intrusion bring about greater challenges in the production of various other crops in the country such as coffee and fruit trees. 

Vietnam is projected to suffer agricultural losses of 5.6 percent due to a changing climate by 2030. As part of efforts to combat the effects of climate change, there is a need to find sustainable solutions to address the current food system challenges in the region. 

In bringing together scientific and local knowledge in Vietnam, the Alliance and the Department of Crop Production (DCP) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) have implemented participatory approaches in the development and dissemination of agro-climatic bulletins (ACBs) to reduce climate risks. 

What is researcher's approach?

Generators: National, regional and provincial Hydro-Met Centres.

Translators: Agricultural staff under Agricultural Service Centre/department of Agricultural and Rural development and key members of technical working groups.

Disseminators: Extension services, local authorities, Cultural and Sport Centres/radio systems (loudspeakers), Cooperatives, Farmers’ Zalo groups, etc.

Users: Farmers.

Principles

During the SA-season 2022, 71% (out of 432 farmers in three provinces) used advisories from bulletins in farm management practices (29% did not make changes).

Of those:

- 41% of respondents changed fertilizer and pesticide use

- 38% of respondents changed the crop calendar (e.g., reschedule sowing time as recommended based on expected salinity levels, pests and diseases outbreak or unexpected rainfall patterns)

- 29% of respondents reported other changes, including selection of crop varieties and species and time of harvesting.

- Overall trend is similar across provinces with An Giang showing the most changes, followed by Hau Giang and Tieng Giang.

 

Results of ACBs application

- On average 44% of farmers agreed and 37% partly agreed that ACBs application contributed to changes in crop yield

- Despite differences between provinces, overall 30.6 to 58.1% agreed that advisory contributed to higher yield

Note: based on farmers’ self-reporting / Researchers did not assess yield impacts 

Source: End-of-season surveys in Tien Giang, Hau Giang and An Giang provinces, 2022. Applied for 2022 Summer-Autumn season.

 

A case study in Tien Giang province was conducted to analyze the adoption, cost and benefit of the ACB application at farm level during the rice production Winter-Spring 2021-2022 season. ACB-adopters perform better than non-adopters in several production indicators.

- Saved rice pesticide use and cost: 39.6% of ACB adopters reported that they can reduced pesticide use and therefore reduced average cost of 1.36 million VND (USD 58) per hectare per season thanks to ACBs. 

- Increased rice yield and revenue: Based on correlation assessment, adopting ACBs is associated with increase in rice yield (266 kg per hectare per season) and rice revenue (USD 78 per hectare per season) but not with net profit.

- However, while ACB adoption is strongly associated with positive production outcomes, further research is needed to exclude the role of confounding variables, such as education level.

The approach is based on the LTAC approach, originally developed in Latin America

For more on ACB approach in Vietnam: please visit guideline (link) and video (link). To know more on this variation, please contact:

Le Thi Tam - Vietnam project coordinator.