Project overview

Agricultural systems in South East Asia are at a crossroads between conventional intensive models and emerging agroecological approaches. The continuous intensification of conventional models which rely heavily on chemical inputs and capital is leading to a simplification of agricultural landscapes, land degradation and biodiversity depletion, and to increased health risks for farmers and consumers. Moreover, beyond food and nutrition security, food safety is a rising concern, especially in relation to high pesticide residues, and to the contamination of soils and aquifers. Interestingly, agroecological approaches provide an increasing range of agricultural and market innovations towards healthier, environmental and sustainable practices.

Aim and Objectives

The overall objective of the Agroecological and Safe food System Transitions (ASSET) programme is to make food and agricultural systems in the region more sustainable, safer and inclusive, through harnessing the potential of Agroecology to transform them. It is implemented by GRET as the general coordinator, in a strong articulation with CIRAD in charge of the scientific coordination, in partnership with a consortium of 23 International/European/National Institutions and Organizations and 2 United Nations Agencies.

ASSET will develop and promote a shared vision of Agroecology and Safe Food System Transitions through a comprehensive approach that includes research, networking, policy advocacy, capacity development, awareness raising and communication using ALiSEA1 network. The consortium will engage with governments, civil society, private sector and smallholder farmers to generate and transform knowledge into sustainable innovation processes and transformative policies, sensitive to youth and gender equality.

By fostering technical, organizational and institutional innovations at territorial level in flagship programs, generating robust evidence on their performances and impacts, bringing successful approaches to scale and by building upon regional reliable initiatives and institutions, ASSET will help support opening a dialogue on linking agricultural and markets transformations in policy frameworks at local, national and regional level.

Outputs and Impacts

Ultimate Impact:

• Increased food security and food safety for smallholder farmers, and SMEs in South East Asia

Intermediate Impacts:

• A paradigm shifts for the recognition and adoption of agroecology principles and activities into policies and society feeding into safe food system transitions
• Multiple diversified production and marketing models with increasingly diverse connections to export and domestic value-chains and food systems are available and coexist

Outcomes

• ALiSEA becomes a fully autonomous member-managed network
• ALiSEA becomes a key knowledge hub on the transitions
• Stakeholders use newly acquired knowledge and capacity to support the transitions
• Stakeholders scale up tested innovations and models from local to regional levels
• Policy-makers integrate knowledge to enable changes towards the transitions

Countries

Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam

Coordinator

• GRET - Professionals for Fair Development (France)
• CIRAD - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (France)

Partners

• GDA - The General Directorate of Agriculture of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (Cambodia)
• ITC - Institute of Technology of Cambodia
• DALAM - The Department of Agricultural Land Management of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (Lao PDR)
• DOPLA -  The Department of Policy and Legal Affairs of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (Lao PDR)
• NAFRI - The National Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (Lao PDR)
• NUOL - National University of Laos
• DAR - The Department of Agricultural Research of the Ministry of Agriculture Livestock and Irrigation (Myanmar)
• DOA - The Department of Agriculture of the Ministry of Agriculture Livestock and Irrigation (Myanmar)
• Yezin University (Myanmar)
• IPSARD - Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development (Vietnam)
• NIAS - National Institute of Animal Sciences (Vietnam)
• VAAS - Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Sciences (Vietnam)
• IRD - National Research Institute for Development (France)
• Mediaseeds (France)
• Stockholm Environment Institute (Sweden)
• Swisscontact (Switzerland)
• Uni4Coop (Belgium)
• University of Bern (CDE, Switzerland)
• PIN - Educational and Scientific Services for the University of Florence (PIN) (Italy)
• University of Hohenheim (Germany)
• FAO -  Food and Agriculture Organization
• UN ESCAP - Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific
• APAARI - Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions
• CIAT - International Center for Tropical Agriculture
• ILRI - International Livestock Research Institute

Total budget

15 million €