Since the mid-2000s, land-use in Kham basin and Nonghet hillsides has come to be dominated by hybrid maize mono-cropping. The rapid expansion of this commercial crop has a tremendous impact on both the local economy and the environment. Maize has not only replaced existing gardens, chilli and fruit tree plantations but it has also expanded at the expense of forests and former fallow land. With the transition towards intensive commercial agriculture, agricultural productivity has increased considerably while rural poverty has receded. Yet, a growing number of farmers are now confronted with land degradation issues (e.g. soil erosion, lowland siltation, weed pressure and chemical pollution), excessive production costs and indebtedness. In this context, the activities promoted by PRONAE have focused on accompanying the ‘maize boom’ and, in particular, mitigating its potentially negative impacts by developing DMC-based maize cropping systems.
Accompanying the maize boom in the Kham basin and Nonghet district - NAFRI
Enhancing land productivity while preserving natural resources in the mountains of Kham district
Constrained by a hilly topography and long distances to the main economic centers of the province, agriculture in the northern part of Kham district has long been dominated by traditional slash-and-burn shifting cultivation. In general, the plots are cropped with glutinous rice during one year, sometimes planted with traditional maize varieties the following year, and left fallowed for 3 to 15 years depending on the distance of the plot to the village and the associated land pressure. In these forested environments, NTFPs are traditionally an important source of food.
Extension and determinants for adoption of direct seeding mulch-based cropping systems in smallholder agriculture, Lao PDR
Adoption of SVC by smallholders in Laos
improved pastures and DMC-based upland rice cultivation: Two solutions to intensify land-use in Pek district
With limited opportunities for agricultural expansion in the lowlands (i.e. most of the lowland areas have already been converted into paddy fields), increasing rice production representsa key challenge for the subsistence farmers of the plain of Jars. Yet, in the quasi-absence of chemical fertilization, the productivity of lowland agriculture is strongly linked to upland cattle breeding and the availability of manure
Accompanying the agroecological transition in Lao PDR: Opportunities and challenges for conservation agriculture in maize production areas
Adoption of SVC by smallholders in Laos
Adoption of Conservation Agriculture in Laos - A case study in the Mekong corridor
Case study in the Mekong Corridor
(poster) Adoption of conservation agriculture in Laos
The results of these surveys show that there are currently more than 1,200 smallholders using DMC systems on a total of about 1,500 ha of cultivated land. Overall, the rates and levels of DMC systems’ adoption by smallholders appear more important in areas where the environment is the most degraded and/or particularly fragile (case of Nongphakbong village, Botene district). In contrast, in less environmentally-degraded and less fragile areas, the level of DMC systems’ adoption is still rather limited. With more productive soils, mechanized mono-cropping can still provide high profits and, as such, retain the interest of a majority of farmers (case of Bouamlao village, Paklay district)
A farmer-group based approach linking research and development for the promotion of Conservation Agricultural in the Lao PDR.
A holistic approach, based on a permanent link between research and development, has been implemented by the Lao National Agro-Ecology Programme (PRONAE – PCADR,NAFRI), the Rural Development Project of the four southern districts of Xayabury province (PASS – PCADR, LCG), and the Sector-based Programme on Agroecology (PROSA, MAF), in partnership with the department of agriculture and forestry of Xayabury and Xieng Khouang provinces.