A virtual regional consultation workshop will be held on 7 July 2021, 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. (UCT+7), to formally kickstart the development process of the third volume and the accompanying implementation strategies of the ASEAN Guidelines for Promoting Climate Smart Agricultural (CSA) Practices. Co-organized by the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), this event is hosted by the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI) on behalf of the ASEAN-Climate Resilience Network (CRN) and supported by the Climate Smart Land Use in ASEAN Project of the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ).
The ASEAN CSA Guidelines Volume I was published in 2015 and Volume 2 in 2017 as guides to enhance climate resilience and improve agricultural productivity among ASEAN Member States (AMS). Specifically, these two documents promote the scaling up of nine CSA practices ranging from stress tolerant varieties of rice and maize, agricultural insurance, to integrated farming systems. To further promote the application of CSA practices in the region, the ASEAN-CRN aims to complement the existing two volumes with a third volume that reflects new CSA trends particularly in the context of emerging challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, implementation strategies to advance CSA in the region will also be formulated. Under this purview, the consultation workshop aims to:
- Generate insights about CSA technologies and practices at national and regional levels
- Explore perceptions about existing ASEAN CSA Guidelines., Vol. 1 and Vol. 2
- Reflect on considerations and ideas for Vol. 3 and the corresponding implementation strategies
- Create joint understanding of the way forward on the development of the next volume
The workshop will include a presentation session led by Dr. Romeo V. Labios, Agronomist and Lead Expert for the initiative, and Dr. Pedcris M. Orencio, SEARCA's Program Head of the Research and Thought Leadership Department. SEARCA will also facilitate discussions to elicit inputs on considerations and ideas for ASEAN CSA Guidelines Volume 3 and their Implementation Strategies. Outputs of and learnings from these discussions are expected to serve as key inputs to the drafts of the guidelines and the strategies to be developed by SEARCA.
Participants of the workshop will include members of ASEAN-CRN, national focal persons of the ASEAN Technical Working Group on Agricultural Research and Development (ATWGARD), representatives from relevant ASEAN sectoral bodies (e.g., ASEAN Working Group on Climate Change), and representatives of development agencies and research institutions.