By seven in the morning, the heat is already settling over the fields of Siem Reap province, Cambodia. The air is still, the land is dry, and the rice is dying. There is no smell of wet earth, no sign of rain.

"I have never experienced a drought this long in my life," says Sokhoeun Chhut, a 45-year-old farmer in the province. "This year is definitely a loss. It's all scorched. It's hot as fire."

These are the effects of El Niño, a natural climate phenomenon that disrupts weather patterns around the world. Across South and Southeast Asia, El Niño is changing the normal summer monsoon pattern, delaying the rainy season and intensifying drought conditions. Globally, it can increase extreme heat and wildfire risk in some regions, while bringing heavier rains, flooding and marine heatwaves to others.

The World Meteorological Organization expects this El Niño to peak in late 2026 and into early 2027, with impacts on rainfall, food production and global temperature to continue beyond this peak.

Cambodia has been here before. During the 1997–98 El Niño, the Cambodian government appealed for some 250 000 tonnes of rice for drought-affected populations.

In Preah Vihear province, Sokhom Kha was already farming when that El Niño hit. She has worked on the land since 1987, long before weather and climate information became easily accessible to rural communities.

"On some days, we ate rice mixed with red corn just to survive. We would get bamboo shoots from the forest and catch fish from the fields to feed the whole family," she shares.

The 2015-16 El Niño was even more extreme. Causing exceptionally hot and dry conditions, it affected around 2.5 million people across 18 provinces, reducing the production of rice and hurting the fisheries sector. Now, Cambodia is once again confronting the risks of El Niño's impacts.

In June 2026, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), drawing on 41 years of satellite observations as part of its Agricultural Stress Index System (ASIS), identified Cambodia as being at high risk of severe drought during the El Niño cycle. FAO estimated that
127 300 hectares of agricultural and pastureland in Cambodia were likely to be affected.

Data like this can help identify where monitoring and advisory services are needed the most. It gives projects and governments a basis for assessing what a strong El Niño could mean for farmers and where early action could make the greatest difference.

In Cambodia, one initiative is helping communities navigate that uncertainty. The PEARL project, implemented by FAO together with the Cambodian government and financed by the Green Climate Fund (GCF), combines climate information, early warning and practical measures to help farmers manage the effects of drought.

Through Farmer Field Schools and demonstration sites, PEARL teaches communities practical ways to cope with drier conditions. These include cover crops to retain soil moisture, field dikes to harvest water and adjusted cropping calendars to reduce drought impacts.

Sokhom is one of over 4 000 farmers benefiting from these advisories. She and her husband plant organic rice, cassava and cashews on their farm. It was a long road, and she learned to farm through uncertainty. While the risks remain, Sokhom now has something she didn't have before: time to act.

Through social media and a locally available mobile application called Chamka, PEARL sends the farmers bulletins from the Cambodia Agrometeorological Service that pair the rainfall forecast with practical advice: when to irrigate, when to hold off.  This time, Sokhom knew ten days in advance that rain wouldn't come, and she prepared for it.

"They advised us to close the field dikes and store water at a certain height. Now, the fields with proper dikes have fewer weeds, which reduces our losses significantly," Sokhom explains.

Access to early warning information has changed how she prepares for and responds to drought, such as how she manages water. In past seasons, Sokhom would harvest without knowing whether heavy rain was coming, putting freshly harvested paddy at risk. Now, she waits.

"The paddy would get soaked and we'd struggle to dry it," she says. "Now, knowing when rain is expected, I can wait before harvesting. It makes things much easier."

Reading drought from space

At the national level, data provides a broader picture: where drought will hit, which crops and areas are most exposed and where support should go. Drawing on satellite data, ASIS helps turn insight into action: linking drought monitoring with decisions on the ground.

"By monitoring drought stress across croplands, ASIS gives governments and farmers time to protect livelihoods, safeguard food supplies and act before losses become irreversible," says Jorge Alvar-Beltrán, FAO Natural Resources Officer.

FAO is supporting countries across Latin America and Asia in adapting ASIS to their own crops and growing calendars, so droughts can be tracked earlier, and preparedness measures can be undertaken where they are needed most. More than 10 countries already have national-level ASIS.

The lessons go beyond El Niño. The same tools also help farmers adapt to a changing climate. Not only preventing losses today, ASIS helps farmers withstand climate extremes tomorrow.

The story and photos can be found here: https://www.fao.org/newsroom/story/when-el-nino-brings-drought-every-minute-counts/en