Written by Mekong Institute

The Mekong Institute was commissioned by the French Development Agendy (AFD) to conduc a ten-day training course on “Agriculture Sector Value Chain Analysis and Promotion” for fifteen government officials from Department of Irrigation, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Lao PDR. The course aims at deeloping participants professional capacity and broadening their horizon on the features, usefulness and benefits Value Chain Approach to local, national and regional economic development, as well as practicing analysis of agricultural value chain development in the Laos context.   

The training course was designed and delvered using modular training approac, of which all participants went through three progressive stages: a) “Learn to do”- training concepts, techniques and tools; b) “Do to learn”- participants are required to apply what they have learned in their work assignment with proper coaching from assigned advisors; and c) “Share to learn”- participants will have an opportunity to present their group works/finding and share their learning experiences and lessons learned.

There are five resource persons/subject experts who contributed to te design and delver of the lectures, workshops and strucutred learning visits, namely: Assoc Prof Nongluvk Suphanchaimar of Khon Kaen Unversity, Mr Sansnthi Bonyothayan of Sakon Nakon Provincial Agriculture and Cooperatives, Ms Anothai Nutasarin of Office of the Agriculture Extension and Deelopment (Region IV), Ms Rawinda Wattanakool of Science and Techonology Research Institute (STRI, Chaing Mai University , and Mr Wichit Hongkarnjanakul of Regional Irrigation Offce, Khon Kaen.

Seven structured learning visits were organized for the participants in this course; their understanding of the program’s contents was enhanced through different appreciation visits and interacton with enterprises and group of villagers in Khon Kaen, Roi Et, Yasothon and Sakon Nakhon provinces.

The eveluations conducted throughout te course confirmed that the objectives were achieved and the learning program was successful. Most of the participants were very satisfied with the program as shown in the totla average rating on 1) satisfaction on structured learning visits and program design, and 2) impression of te program (4.4 and 4.5 respectiely, both are almost “excellent”). However, there were suggestions for imprvements, for example, more time for field visits, more interaction wth villagers by homestaying in their community, more detailed information on the background profiles and more involvement of participants from other sectors such as marketing.