In Laos, the agrarian transition is characterized by rapid changes in agricultural production systems. Since the early 2000s, a transition has been taking place, away from subsistence agriculture, primarily based on rice cultivation, forest gathering and extensive livestock farming, and towards market-oriented agricultural production systems, with a significant and rapid increase in crops grown for export (Figure 5.1) to neighbouring countries, mainly China, Thailand and Vietnam. This transition has been facilitated by the implementation of successive public policies to limit the use of shifting cultivation and to modernize agriculture (Box 5.1), and by the result of the country becoming