Commune agro-ecosystems analysis (CAEA) is a participatory approach designed to help communities improve decision making at the commune (subdistrict) level. To better integrate fisheries considerations into the CAEA process, the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) initiated the project that significantly improved the way fisheries issues are addressed. The use of CAEA has been officially adopted as a national policy for agricultural development.

This module is about water resources, their complex relationship with the environment and the economy and the growing problem of water scarcity and the various options that exist to deal with this problem. The module examines how water is allocated between various competing demands and explores the role that water plays in food security, public health, people’s livelihoods and other aspects of social and economic development.

The impacts of climate change on agriculture and food production in Southeast Asia will be largely mediated through water, but climate is only one driver of change. Water resources in the region will be shaped by a complex mixture of social, economic and environmental factors.

Report submitted to the Council of Agriculture, Agricultural Engineering Research Center, Taoyuan Irrigation Research and Development Foundation, Environment Greening Foundation and Tsao-Jiin Memorial Foundation for Research and Development for Agriculture and Irrigation of the Republic of China.

This report describes the hydrological aspects of a CGIAR project to model the effects of water flows on aquatic resource production in the Mekong Basin. The project was carried out by the International Centre for Living Aquatic Resources Management (ICLARM, Penang, Malaysia) and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI, Colombo, Sri Lanka) in cooperation with the Mekong River Commission (MRC, Phnom Penh, Cambodia) together with other institutes and national and regional agencies working in the riparian countries of Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Vietnam.