On May 23, 2024, researchers from the Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS) participated in the Mekong River Commission (MRC) Expert Group Meeting on Irrigation Technology in Siem Reap, Cambodia. During the meeting, they presented an overview of the SATREPS project currently underway in Cambodia titled "Development and Social Implementation of Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Technologies in Paddy Fields of West Tonle Sap Lake by Establishing a Large Paddy Area Water Management System."

The meeting aimed to discuss and obtain approval from MRC member countries (Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam) for the final draft of the guidance on intermittent irrigation currently being prepared by the MRC, to share an overview of the SATREPS project being implemented by JIRCAS in Cambodia, and to share information on intermittent irrigation efforts currently being implemented in Thailand and Vietnam. A total of 25 people participated in the meeting, including representatives from the MRC Secretariat, agriculture and irrigation officials from MRC member countries, and JIRCAS researchers who participated in person and online.

At the meeting, Dr. WATANABE Mamoru, Senior Researcher in the Rural Development Division, presented the SATREPS project’s approach for implementing intermittent irrigation over a wide area of paddy fields in Cambodia. Participants expressed positive feedback, including expectations that efforts to link methane emission reductions to carbon credits could provide new incentives for farmers.

The meeting resulted in the approval of the draft guidance on intermittent irrigation, which will undergo final revisions and proofreading before being published later this year. The guidance was developed with contributions from JIRCAS’s research outcomes in Vietnam, with Dr. MINAMIKAWA Kazunori, Senior Researcher in the Crop, Livestock and Environment Division, assisting in reviewing the document and other support.

The day before the meeting (May 22), members of the MRC Secretariat visited the SATREPS project model site in Pursat Province, Cambodia, to observe the project’s implementation, including gas sampling using the chamber method.