The Japanese government is providing a US$5 million (40 billion kip) grant to fund a project to establish a “Sustainable and Independent Farm Household Economy in the Rural Areas of Laos”.
The project will be carried out in the Nameuang village development group in Meuangfeuang district, Vientiane province.
The venture aims to develop new technologies that not only use regional natural resources efficiently but also adopt sustainable management systems that recognise the traditional practices of rural Laos.
The project also intends to establish sustainable and profitable farming systems that protect biodiversity, which is vital for rural societies.
The last part of the research will demonstrate the newly developed technologies on local farms and modify them to suit field conditions and local needs.
Project activities include building a small irrigation system, demonstrations of low-capital high-productivity farming techniques, local fisheries management and fruit seed improvement.
The project inception workshop was held yesterday in Vientiane and was chaired by Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Dr Ty Phommasack and Japanese Ambassador to Laos Ms Junko Yokota.
The agriculture and forestry sector plays an important role in the socio-economic development of the country and is vital for providing food security and incomes, Dr Ty said at the workshop.
He believes the project will contribute to the sustainable development of agriculture, which is part of the agriculture and forestry development strategy in Laos.
The five year project will run from 2011-2015 and will be conducted by the National Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute (NAFRI) in Laos and the Japanese International Research Centre for Agricultural Science (JIRCAS).
In recent years, Asean countries including Laos have shown rapid economic growth and development. However, this has resulted in a widening economic gap among member countries, according to a JIRCAS press release.
To set up the Asean Community by 2015 as planned, it has become essential to narrow this development gap, the press release stated.
The release went on to say that it was urgent and important to provide more support to less developed member countries such as Laos.
Commercialisation is one of the effective agricultural policies that farmers can pursue to increase their income and improve their standard of living.
However, in the long term it must be kept in mind that commercialisation has always been beset with problems.
For example, the successive planting of the same crop only for its profitability depletes soil nutrients, thus lowering soil fertility, while excessive use of chemical fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides affects the ecosystem in various ways.
In Laos, many farmers have begun to cultivate crops not only for their daily needs but also for cash income and the traditional way of life in rural areas is now changing.
The exploitation of natural resources, including clearing forest land for crop production, is ongoing.
It is necessary to strike a balance between commercialisation and sustainable natural resources conservation by learning from the lessons of developed countries.
