This project follows a study conducted by GRET for AFD in 2013. The idea was to evaluate the feasibility of a regional project for the promotion of agroecological principles and practices in the greater Mekong region: Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and Yunnan – China.

The project was geographically limited to Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam for budgetary reasons. It aims to provide institutional and operational support to the Conservation Agriculture Network for South East Asia – CANSEA, while extending the project’s scope of intervention to a broader “agroecology” network, as conservation agriculture is considered to be an agroecological practice. The project will help agroecology actors to increase their visibility and the impact of their actions by facilitating and strengthening synergies between actors in the sector: farmers, development agencies, private sector, etc.

The overall objective of the project is to construct effective sustainable mechanisms that can facilitate synergies between initiatives contributing to agroecological transition in South-East Asia. The agroecological approaches supported by the project are considered as convincing and tested alternatives to the dominant agrifood system. They aim to strengthen family farmers’ capacities to innovate, and to ensure acknowledgement of their contribution to food sovereignty in the region. They cover the technical, economic, societal and political dimensions of the agrifood system, while mobilising all stakeholders involved in value chains. The project should increase credibility and visibility of agroecological practices among family farms, consumers and policy makers.

Two specific objectives are proposed, which operationally translate into two components of the ACTAE Project:

• Component 1 (implemented by Cirad): strengthen and institutionalise the existing CANSEA network in its role to promote the effective adoption of conservation agriculture, particularly by involving a broader spectrum of members, through the construction of alliances with national and regional agroecological movements, and through diversification of funding sources.
• Component 2 (implemented by GRET): promote the emergence of a new regional network called ALiSEA (Agro-ecological Learning alliance in South East Asia), aimed at strengthening sharing of experiences and knowledge between agroecological initiative actors; increasing visibility and credibility of the agroecological movement among policy-makers and consumers; and accelerating the dissemination and adoption of agroecological practices by family farmers.

The component facilitated by GRET will mainly:

• Construct and moderate an attractive ALiSEA website
• Organise national and regional multi-stakeholder workshops to facilitate sharing of experiences, build bridges, stimulate synergies and formulate a common concept of “agroecological transition”, and ensure media coverage of these workshops;
• Organise joint evaluations of agroecological experiences and practices (case studies), by analysing the conditions necessary for upscaling;
• Attract and stimulate scientific research to document and compare parameters, expected results and the conditions necessary for the success of various agroecological crop systems;
• Conduct studies to document and map agroecological practices, experiences and networks in the 4 countries;
• Set up and manage a small grants system to co-fund actions aimed at establishing links and collaborations between stakeholders, sharing experiences, documenting case studies, designing or testing innovative concepts…;
• Facilitate the emergence of national networks and the regional network, and support the latter’s national secretariats that are hosted by the partners in each country.