The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved an extra loan of US$5 million to the Lao government for the continuation of the Smallholder Development Project which is underway in four provinces.
The Smallholder Development Project works to strengthen management capacity among farmers and assist them with agricultural promotion and marketing, so that they receive a fair price for their produce at local and regional markets.
The additional funding will enable the project to continue for another three years from 2012-2014, and commence operations in eight new districts in Khammuan, Savannakhet, Champassak and Vientiane provinces, where it has been operating since 2003.
During the first phase , the ABD provided US$12 million towards the project, which is administered by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in 16 districts of the four provinces. It is jointly funded by the Lao government, which also invested US$3.2 million in the project.
Government officials and the project steering committee gathered in Vientiane yesterday to discuss the success of the first phase, and suggest improvements for the second phase.
The first phase initially hoped to benefit 54,000 families, in 581 villages and 157 cooperative groups, but in fact was able to assist 68,496 families in 1,055 villages and 162 cooperative groups, according to a project report.
The project encouraged farmers to grow commercial crops such as rice, vegetables, sweetcorn, cabbage and coffee, hoping to yield 30,000 tonnes of produce in 2010 but they exceeded expectations to yield 54,655 tonnes.
The numbers of farming families in the project areas who suffered from a lack of rice for personal consumption decreased markedly and people now have higher disposable incomes from selling their surplus crops, project manager Mr Kham-ouan Khamphoukeo said.
Fish and meat production exceeded the project target of 50,000 tonnes to reach 56,777 tonnes, he added. To continue to develop agricultural production and build on the success of the project, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Dr Ty Phommasak urged the project committee and technical staff at both central and local levels to increase their coordination to share new ideas and boost efficiency.
He advised that more technical staff should be brought in to assist farmers by solving pest problems and suggesting possible improvements to their cropping methods.
Agricultural experts were needed to assess which crops were best suited to local conditions, and which crops particular villagers were likely to be best able to harvest successfully.
The project should conduct a survey of the districts involved and allocate clearly which areas are suitable for crop plantation in either the short or long term, and which areas are best suited to industrial tree plantation and livestock breeding, Dr Ty said. The project also needed to introduce new technology and farming techniques, and update traditional methods of farming which were no longer appropriate or productive. They needed to encourage farmers to scale up their commercial production in order to improve their cash incomes.
Some agricultural staffers are not yet highly qualified in their fields, Dr Ty said, but the continuation of the project and the deployment of technical experts would enable them to improve their knowledge and skills and work more productively to increase agricultural outputs.
