As the issue of Climate Change is on top agenda in almost all countries in the world, Climate Change has become the main focus in the upcoming Farmer Conference under the theme of “Together Raise Awareness on Climate Change for Sustainable Agriculture” organized on 19 February,2010 at the National Institute of Education, Phnom Penh. This conference is co-organized by Council for Agriculture and Rural Development, National Committee for Disaster Managemen, Caritas Cambodia, Catholic Relief Services (CRS), The NGO Forum on Cambodia, Geres Cambodia

There are 3 main objectives of this conference:

• Disseminate information to farmers on the root causes, impact, and current situation of climate change in Cambodia to increase their knowledge and understanding of the issue.
• Share and disseminate knowledge and experience on household food production in the context of climate change.
• Hold roundtable discussions (farmer, GO, NGO) to deepen farmers’ understanding on climate change, get their recommendations, and provide platform for farmers to raise their concerns on the issue.

The Farmer Conference is organized every year and is enable to mobilize hundreds of participants from the government institution, NGOs, farmers from across the country, private sectors and other key stakeholders. The Farmer conference this year will gather approximately 300 people, including 27 people representing government, 56 people from NGOs and about 240 participants are farmers from 24 provinces.

The expected outputs of this conference are:

• Targeted farmers have increased awareness on the root cause and impact of climate change as well as ideas to adapt to climate change.
• Targeted farmers share experiences among on improving household food production in the context of climate change.
• Identifying measures for mitigation and adaptation of climate change.
• Findings of the forum will provide the basis for planning future forums to more deeply discuss and plan future actions and/or policies of NGOs and GO to mitigate, adapt and obstruct the impact of the climate change.