Lower Mekong Food Security Database

Agriculture, farming in particular, may be a traditional industry but it is by no means an easy source of livelihood. More than the disparity between the cost of inputs and the gains and profits, not to mention the manual labor it entails, farmers also have to contend with natural, uncontrollable constraints such as the changing weather, irrigation and water problems, and limitations due to the land’s topography.

Farming in a mountainous terrain, for example, brings with it a set of problems, foremost of which is irrigation and the access to water. A certain area’s soil type can only grow specific kinds of crops. Weather patterns such as drought can impact the quality and quantity of the season’s harvest.

And while generations of farmers in a region such as Southeast Asia have learned to be innovative in their farming practices, much can still be done to further their farming techniques and technologies to better adapt to the constraints of their natural environment.

Agriculture in Laos

A land-locked country in Southeast Asia and sharing borders with China, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar, Lao PDR has a traditionally agriculture-based economy like its neighbors. Around 80% of its six million people are engaged in farming and other forms of related livelihood. The income from the sector makes up almost half of the country’s GDP. While rice remains the country’s number 1 agricultural product, farmers also grow other non-rice crops like sweet potato, corn, tobacco, and cotton.

The country’s natural landscape is comprised both of upland and lowlands areas, with the latter located along the banks of the Mekong and therefore are the top producers of rice because of the easily irrigated land. On the one hand, these areas are also the most vulnerable to flooding when the river overflows during storms and heavy rains.

The upland areas where around 70% of the population live are purely reliant on agriculture. However, irrigation problems and drought have made growing significant yields difficult. More often than not, small, household irrigation projects are in place instead of large-scale irrigation systems.

According to the World Food Programme Country Report on Laos, these natural constraints result into the country’s reduced agricultural productivity, in turn aggravating the problems of food insecurity and malnutrition.

Climate change has also made the country more vulnerable as the number of typhoons and storms that hit Laos has increased over the years. The flash floods and heavy soil erosion are also rapidly changing much of the country’s natural landscape. Soil nutrient deficiency in potassium, nitrogen and phosphorus as well as iron toxicity also compound these issues.

The CURE Commitment

For a country that relies heavily on agriculture, an important challenge is overcoming these constraints in the environment. Filipino scientist Gelia Castillo in her policy brief titled "CURE Approach Amidst Rice Crisis and Climate Change" explained that there has always been less focus on agricultural activities in unfavorable environments but that the hype generated by the campaign to secure food has raised the need to also improve agricultural productivity in these environments.

It is for this reason that the Consortium for Unfavorable Rice Environments (CURE) was created. Facilitated through the International Rice Research Institute and with funding from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Consortium works in 10 countries in South and Southeast Asia to address and seek solutions to agricultural problems in unfavorable rice environments.

In Laos, the Consortium’s work is focused in drought-prone and marginal upland areas especially in the Luang Prabang and Khammouane Provinces. Currently, CURE is working in over 10 villages in the said provinces. Partner institutions are the National Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute, the Northern Agriculture and Forestry Research Centre, and the Thasano Rice Research and Seed Multiplication Center.

The focal point of CURE’s work in Laos and the other 9 countries is to make certain that rice technologies that address unfavorable environments are made available to farmers. Working with the NARES, the Consortium has facilitated training and capacity-building programs to determine and map farmers’ information needs. The training on trainers on community seed banks for upland rice varieties in May 2011 was one such initiative to provide local farmers and the NARES partners in the country greater access to seed sources.

CURE's continuing research in Laos on germplasm, rice varieties and seed and seedling management have led to significant headway in helping local farmers achieve higher yields. Farmers who have been given the None rice variety in 2006 claimed that the variety is exceedingly adaptable to various soil types besides producing higher yield. In the central and southern parts of Laos where flooding is a common occurrence during the monsoon season, farmers have been using the TDK1-Sub1 rice variety, which was found to be more flood-tolerant compared to other modern and traditional rice varieties. The seed variety was first introduced in 2009 when the XebangfaiRiver overflowed in the Khammouane Province resulting into severely poor harvest for many of the farmers. IRRI also reported that preparations are also underway for the piloting of the Multi-Environment Testing (MET) scheme, a system for growing rain-fed lowland rice varieties. Pilot sites have already been identified in Laos as well as in other selected CURE countries like the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

A distinct feature of CURE’s work is the active engagement of farmers in the development of the technology, allowing for a blending or integration of farmers and scientists’ knowledge and expertise. These participatory approaches are carried out in the form of training of trainers, farmer field schools, farmer-participatory experiments, and the use of information materials in the local language, among others. These, in part, have made Laotian farmers more receptive to the knowledge shared and have allowed them to gain a sense of ownership of the technology.

Formulating workable, long-term solutions

CURE’s work with the farmers in Laos has helped many smallholder farmers especially those in the isolated upland region where agriculture is the only viable source of income. The introduction of more drought and flood-resistant seed varieties and the increased capacity to access knowledge and farming technologies have brought in gains such as increased yield and higher income. But more than anything, these technologies have provided farmers in these unfavorable environments with the lifelong knowledge, capacity and hope to earn their livelihood despite the constraints in their natural environment.