Village Baseline Study: Site Analysis Report for Pailom village Champone district, Savannakhet province, Lao PDR (LA02)

Data collection for the village baseline study of Pailom village located in Savannakhet Province, Lao PDR, took place from 17th -19th Oct, 2014. Focus group discussions were conducted separately for men and women. The village experienced yearly food shortage leading to hunger and malnutrition. Contributory factors included the frequent drought and crop damage from pests and diseases, poor irrigation facilities benefiting only very few farms, high concentration of salt in soil that limits crop diversification in certain areas of arable land, and increasing population that reduces the land area per person. Rice production was the main livelihood in the village but only limited during the wet season because it is mostly rainfall dependant. During the dry season, fields are left to fallow and used for livestock grazing. The government has provided emergency food aid such as rice and corn powder at subsidized cost during food shortage. , Villagers were temporarily migrating to Thailand to work as labourers in factories and in other farms. Few organizations were operating in the village, particularly working on food security and food crisis issues. Information networking for agricultural activities was mainly by individual (farmer to farmer) interaction rather than media. There was poor dissemination of agricultural information or technical support from agriculture extension workers and responsible agencies. Identified priorities in Pailom village include strengthening and promoting agricultural research extension to gather information on fertilizer management, sustainable agricultural production techniques, pest and disease management

Organisational Baseline Study: Overview report for Ekxang CSV, La PDR (LA01)

The CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) is a strategic ten-year partnership between the CGIAR and Future Earth to help thedeveloping world overcome the threats posed by a changing climate, to achieve food security, improve agriculture and livelihoods. In 2014, CCAFS South East Asia began indentifying and implementing Climate Smart Villages (CSVs). Six CSVs were selected in three countries: Vietnam, Cambodia and Lao PDR. The objectives of the CSV is to increase the adaptive capacity of small-holder famers in light of climate change effects, improve livelihoods by sustainably increasing productivity and resilience, mitigate climate change by reducing greenhouse gases (GHGs), and enhance national food security and development goals. This report highlights the results obtained from the organizational baseline study (OBS) which was conducted in the Ekxang CSV located in Phonhong District, Vientiane Province, Lao PDR, in accordance with CCAFS guidelines. The OBS will supplement the quantitative household baseline surveys and the qualitative village baseline studies also being carried out by the Lao CSV Team in Ekxang. The household and village baselines provide information on the recipient-side of services and information. Without considering the external organisations that provide services/information to communities, the picture of current conditions remains incomplete. The main objectives of the OBS are: Understand the current status of provision of information and services at the local level that informs farmers’ decision making and livelihood strategies in response to climate change. Gain an in depth knowledge of the current projects, long term goals and strengths of the organizations highly valued and respected by the community members. Identify organizations for CCAFS to engage and partner with in future interventions. Provide indicators to allow CCAFS to monitor changes in behaviours and practices of relevant local organizations over time. To gather necessary information, we interviewed organizations working in the community whose activities included: natural resources management, environment and climate change, community development, empowering civil society, agricultural production and agricultural product processing

Summary of Baseline Household Survey Results: Phonghong district Vientiane province Lao PDR

This report summarizes the results of the household baseline survey conducted in Ekxang Climate-Smart Village and six surrounding villages in Phonghong district, Vientiane province, Lao PDR. The survey was implemented with participation of 140 randomly selected households using pre-prepared tablet-based questionnaires. The majority of the households were male-headed. On average, each household had six members and most of the members were between 5 and 60 years old. The household size and labor force in the target region are similar to national average. The main source of food and income of the households were from on-farm agriculture production, which was mostly contributed by cultivation and livestock. Agriculture production was mainly for self-sufficient purpose as most of products were consumed within the household. Farm size mostly ranged between 1 and 5 hectares and households still can expand land for crops from existing pasture or fallow land. Besides their own land, households were also allowed access to communal land for food crops, vegetables, and other products. With the availability of arable land, food production was enough for the household demand throughout the year. Considering a “typical food year”, food shortage was only experienced by 3% of the households in June, July and October. Few households experienced food crisis in last five years. Although climate change is widely mentioned by the community, it was not perceived as a main factor that led to changes in farming practices. About 80% of the households changed their crops following market price and preference of consumer and availability of labor over the last 10 years. Rain water was often available for farming during rainy season. During the dry season, due to limited capacity of irrigation system, farmers often use water from ponds and boreholes for surrounding crop fields. Regarding information sources, households received climate and weather information from television and individuals, such as friends, relatives or neighbors. Most of the households owned television (97.9%) and mobile phone (95.7%). Information about extreme events and short term (2-3 days) weather forecast were available, but not the long term weather forecast or early warning of pest and disease outbreak. It seems that government organizations did not pay much attention to providing climate information to farmers as only one out of 129 households reported that they receive the information from government staffs

Village Baseline Study: Site Analysis Report for Ekxang village Phonghong district, Vientiane province, Lao PDR

Data collection for the Village Baseline Study for the Ekxang Climate-Smart Village located in Phonhong District, Vientiane Province, Lao PDR, took place on November 19th - 21st, 2014. Three days of focus group discussions were conducted separately for men and women. Participatory methods were used to gather information on community resources, organizational landscapes, information networks, and the community’s vision for the future. Men and women in Ekxang village had different point of views on their community’s resources. Women were focused more on the conservation and increased forest land as they are responsible for collecting the Non-Timber Forest Product. Men were more interested in the development of agro-forestry. Regarding agriculture, men were focused on rice paddies while the women were more focused on the smaller household vegetable gardens. There were several changes in community resources. Forest and pasture areas were significantly degraded due to urban development, increasing people demands, and expansion of agricultural lands since 1980s. Infrastructures for irrigation were improved 30 years ago to expand the irrigated area but only few households in Ekxang could benefit from it. Villagers experience that soil fertility has declined compared to 25 years ago. There were a number of organizations operating at the village, half of them related to food security, food crisis and natural resource management. However, linkages is not strong the organizations. Farmer-to-farmer, mobile phone and television are main sources of information that support farmers in their decision making. There is a high potential to develop ICT-based technologies in order to support climate-smart farming practices to farmers. From the farmers’ perspective, their Climate-Smart Village should be an agroforestry landscape with smart groundwater use, smart pest management and crop diversification, and smart information services

Managing the transition from farmers’ groups to agricultural cooperatives in Lao PDR

In a time of transition from subsistence to commercial agriculture, small farming households need to be better organized in order to match the market demand in terms of product volume and quality. However, spontaneous initiatives are often discouraged by the lack of proper support in terms of credit, infrastructures, legal framework or relevant information. After a period of collectivization, then the dismantlement of former State-cooperatives, the recent legislation related to farmers associations and agricultural cooperatives is difficult to translate into concrete collective action. Active informal associations in Laos tend to be credit groups or small income generating groups. Small farmers’ groups and agro-enterprises have been created - in most cases with the help of international projects - that could lay the foundation of future cooperatives. However, policy distortions tend to favor large-scale enterprises and create unfair competition for small agro-enterprises in mobilizing capital. The conditions for the emergence of larger associations or cooperatives from existing groups were investigated. Our study revealed the importance of social networks and power relations as a factor of cohesion within groups. Local leadership plays a crucial role in connecting the group members to the village and district institutions. Recommendations are provided to improve group management rules as a pre-requisite to up-scaling into larger associations, e.g. monitoring and alert system for the compliance of group members and managing committee to the internal rules, reporting procedures to group members, transparency of group decision making processes

Management of Non Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) across the Nam Khan Watershed

This study on the use of Non Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) in the Nam Khan Watershed was conducted through household surveys and focus group discussions in three villages selected along a gradient of integration to market, and diversity of livelihood systems: Houayyen and Tinpha villages in Xieng Ngeun district and Longlet village in Phonxay district, Luang Prabang province. The main objectives of this research were to assess the value and uses of NTFPs by local farmers and to compare NTFPs management strategies between accessible and remote areas. This research revealed contrasted NTFPs management strategies between accessible areas and remote areas. More NTFPs species are collected in remote areas than in accessible areas but a bigger quantity is collected in accessible areas. In the remote areas, NTFPs are mainly consumed because of poor market accessibility, while most NTFPs collected in accessible areas are sold on the market. The diversity of NTFPs species available in the landscape influences local household management less than the possibility to get access to market. As a consequence, bigger volumes of a few species are collected in accessible areas for income generation while limited volume of more diverse species are collected in remote areas for food security. In remote areas, NTFPs are primarily collected in forests and old fallows while people in accessible areas have to collect NTFPs in young fallows that are individually appropriated and on agricultural land. Some commercial species (e.g. posaa, khem, peuakmeuak) are gradually domesticated as forest and old fallow patches get smaller, fragmented and scarce in the landscape. Sustainable management about NTFPs across the Nam Khan watershed should integrate conservation – development objectives at the watershed scale by increased exchanges between upstream and downstream villages and with the emerging markets. Sustainable NTFPs management plans should be designed not only at the village level but also at higher administrative levels (e.g. kumban, district, province, watershed) to tackle both environmental and livelihood issues. Protection of wildlife and biodiversity requires a better access to formal education in remote areas and environmental awareness in accessible areas

Patterns of diffusion and adoption of Conservation Agriculture: Case studies in Pek, Kham and Nonghet district, Xieng Khouang province, Lao PDR

Conservation agriculture is a new technique in Northern Lao PDR. This study on the patterns of diffusion and adoption of Conservation Agriculture was conducted in twenty villages of three districts in Xieng khouang province, covering four agro-ecological zones: Pek, northern Kham, Kham basin and Nonghet. The main objectives of this research were to study the adoption of Conservation Agriculture practices and the constraints to its diffusion. The data were based on an exhaustive survey (1463 households), random samples, smaller samples and focus group discussions for assessment the level of adoption. The results of this study revealed that: the four agro-ecological zones impose various geographic constraints to the adoption of “no till” systems. The household survey showed that the diffusion of Conservation Agriculture (no tillage) has reached 12% of the households in Pek, 13% in northern Kham, 11% in Kham basin and 16% in Nonghet. However, the diffusion remained constrained by the important initial financial investments required for establishment and by the limited access to bank credit (quite high interest rate and too short refund period). Furthermore most villagers do not understand the details of technical aspects (herbicides, equipments, etc.). Adoption is therefore constrained by villagers’ relative lack of experience and non-perception of environmental degradation linked to tillage