The Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS), which includes Cambodia, China, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, was founded in 1992 by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) aimed to enhance sub-regional economic cooperation among the countries. Since then, working groups on specific sectors have been established in the GMS. The Working Group on Agriculture (WGA), one sector under the GMS program, was launched in 2002 as a discussion platform to promote agriculture cooperation within the GMS . The 10th Working Group on Agriculture (WGA-10) was held in Xieng Khouang, Lao PDR during April 2 - 4, 2013, together with the 19th Working Group on Environment (WGE-19). The theme for this year was “Facilitating Pro-Poor Green Value Chain Development in the GMS”.

During this meeting, the experts reviewed the progress of the Core Agricultural Support Program (CASP) Phase II under the GMS agricultural development plan 2011 - 2015, and exchanged the opinions with project’s donors.

Also, JIRCAS introduced three projects: Indochina Rural Project, which is carried out in Lao PDR to implement both self-sufficient food production and sustainable commercial agriculture for small farmers, the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which introduces the biogas digester technology in the Mekong-delta region, and the project respond to climate change, which studies the effect of Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) mechanism on rice yield.

As a CASP-II project under the ADB management, the Nitrogen Recycle Project, which aims to cut GHG emission from improper use of organic fertilizers, was introduced. JIRCAS, a national institute with many research outcomeshas, shown its interest to provide the necessary technology and information when the projects reach their completions.

A total of 142 delegates from the GMS countries and the related international organizations (such as ADB, FAO and IFAD), as well as various enterprises and NGOs that were involved in the green value chain, such as organic agriculture, fair trade and eco-tourism, have attended the meeting.

GMS WGA10-WGE19 participants (photo provided by ADO)