MELA committee prioritize three themes to be reviewed and planned to be shared on Agroecology, Climate Change and Digitalization during the following 2024 regional exchange workshop. The committee also appointed The Field Alliance (TFA), as the secretariat while Vietnam representative volunteered to request permission from the government to be the host of the 2024 MELA regional exchange workshop.

During the course, Lao Upland Rural Advisory Services (LURAS) project, TFA and the Vietnamese Department of the Agricultural Extension and Training, Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Development, Vietnam and MELA committee has been meeting periodically to coordinate the organization of the 2024 MELA regional exchange workshop to the final date.

The “Supporting Smallholder Farmers in Asia and Pacific Islands Region through Strengthened Agricultural Advisory Services” or SAAS is a three (3)-year project implemented by the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) with financial support from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). The goal of the project was to empower poor smallholder farmers in Asia-Pacific Region (APR) through access to improved, more effective, and demand-driven agricultural advisory services (AAS). The grant sought to achieve the following objectives:

1. Strengthen individual and organizational capacities of agricultural advisory service stakeholders in target countries and at regional and sub-regional level, which will directly benefit poor farmers, indigenous communities, and producers’ organizations; and,
2. Facilitate the availability and accessibility of appropriate and up-to-date knowledge and evidence on innovative advisory services from a range of sources in the APR region (through country fora and through APIRAS) and worldwide (through GFRAS).

The 3rd Annual Meeting of the Mekong Extension Learning Alliance (MELA) was held from 30 October to 1st November, 2017, at Angkor Paradise Hotel in Siem Reap, Kingdom of Cambodia. It gathered participants from every country in the Mekong region MELA brings together agricultural extension and rural advisory service providers from five countries linked by the Mekong River. The Mekong River passes through Yunnan province of China and five countries in South East Asia: Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

Agricultural extension and rural advisory services in the Mekong Region have many features in common. This network was established in 2015 following discussions at the meeting held in Hanoi in 2013 on ‘Reaching the Millions’ in Hanoi. The main objectives of the MELA meeting were: to share information, knowledge, experience, and best practices in advisory services among Mekong Region countries and institutions involved in agricultural and rural development; and to provide a space for reflection, hands-on peer support and learning.