Schlüsselwörter
(Deutsch)
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AVRDC
ARC
The Asian Regional Centre of Asian Vegetable Research and Development Centre, Bangkok - Thailand
Human Resource Development Project for the Mekon Region and China
Tropenlandwirtschaft
Entwicklungshilfe
Erwachsenenbildung, ständige Weiterbildung
Gesellschaftliche Strukturen und Beziehungen - Beziehungen zum Ausland
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Kurzbeschreibung
(Englisch)
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Vegetables constitute one of the essential food sources in the traditional diets of the Mekong Region countries, viz. China, Vietnam, Laos PDR, Cambodia and Myanmar in the agricultural development agenda of the region. The emphasis is now given to research and development of vegetables. This indirectly points to the limited success of the rice green revolution. Self-sufficiency in this major Asian staple has engendered a consciousness in the national programs to diversify agricultural productivity. Of high priority are the inclusion of high value crops, such as fruits and vegetables, due to their high economic and nutritional values, as well as their proven potential to generate employment and valuable foreign exchange through export.
In order to help address the gap in the national development pnans of the Mekong countries, the Swiss Government supported the training at the Asian Regional Centre on Asian Vegetable Research Development Centre (ARC-AVRDC) of researchers and extensionists from Lao PDR, Cambodia, Vietnam and Myanmar. These national scientists have since then returned to their home countries to contribute their share to national development. In 1998, SDC awarded a grant to ARC-AVRDC to undertake a three year project on human resource development for the Mekong countries. (SDC-ARC Mekong Region Project on Human Resource Development (MRPIMRO) Phase I.
Compared to Phase I, Phase II of the SOC-ARC Mekong Region Project will be more focused, both geographically and thematically. Most recommendations formulated by the external review were taken into account and integrated into the new Project document.
Three main objectives were identified as follows: (1) capacity building and human resources development, (2) scientific and information exchange and (3) collaborative research and development in vegetable production.
Geographically, the project will concentrate on Vietnam, the Lao PDR and China. Plus a regional component. The focus is also different for each country because their needs are not the same, as was observed during the country planning workshops held recently.
In return, the focus will be on tuning and institution building in the Lao PDR, the Mass will be on training and extension; whereas in China, the focus will be more on collaborative research and Information exchange.
The regional component of the project consists mainly of project management and coordination, supporting activities to the partner countries in the Greater Mekong Subregion, viz. information exchange and dissemination, and the organisation of a five-month training course on vegetable production and research.
The main partners are the National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) in the three countries. A limited number of key partners were selected in each country, to ensure the required concentration of efforts. As lar as possible, collaboratIon with private stakeholders, such as seed companies, will be encouraged.
Improving the accss to information, communication and exchanges (scientific and information exchanges), both at regional level and within the countries, will be a key component of the Phase. As far as research is concerned, the activities will concentrate on evaluation and utilisation of germplasm, and on supporting studies to develop improved vegetable production technologies for farmers in the Mekong region. Compared to Phase I, monitoring and evalution have also been strengthened (refer to chapter 9). A set of indicators has been worked out for the monitoring of project activities. The planned project evaluation includes a mid-term review (auto-evaluation) as well as an external review at the end of the four-year phase. The total budget for Phase I is CHF 410'000.-. Considering the geographic area covered by the project and the planned activities, this budget is already conservative. Capacity building and human resources development represent approximately 42% of the budget. In the three partner countries - and especially in China - the project will work with seed rooney and advice to allow a smooth implementation of the planned activities by the respective NARS.
Text ab Papiervorlage gescannt.
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