Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry

National Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute

Report on the Diagnostic Survey in Namo District

Socioeconomics Component

LSUAFRP Field Report 2003/01

Lao Swedish Upland Agriculture and Forestry Research Programme January 2003

Table of Contents PREFACE ................................................................................................................................................................. 1

1. POPULATION OF THE RESEARCH VILLAGES IN NAMO................................................................... 1

2. RESOURCES ...................................................................................................................................................... 3

2.1 LAND ............................................................................................................................................................... 3 2.1.1 General assessment of land resources.................................................................................................... 6

2.2 LIVESTOCK AND FISHERY RESOURCES ............................................................................................................. 7 2.3 FOREST AND NTFP RESOURCES....................................................................................................................... 9

3. PROBLEMS WITHIN THE HOUSEHOLD LIVELIHOOD SYSTEMS.................................................. 9

3.1 FOOD SECURITY ............................................................................................................................................. 11 3.2 CASH INCOME, SAVINGS AND INVESTMENT ................................................................................................... 14 3.3 HOUSEHOLD ENERGY AND SHELTER .............................................................................................................. 15 3.4 LIVESTOCK FEED ............................................................................................................................................ 16 3.5 COTTAGE INDUSTRY ...................................................................................................................................... 16 3.6 MEDICINE AND HEALTH CARE........................................................................................................................ 17

4. PROBLEMS WITHIN THE PRODUCTION SUBSYSTEMS AND COMPONENTS........................... 18

4.1 GROUP INTERVIEW RESULTS FOR NAMO....................................................................................................... 18 4.1.1 Cropping systems .................................................................................................................................. 18 4.1.2 Livestock ................................................................................................................................................ 19 4.1.3 Non-timber forest products ................................................................................................................... 20 4.1.4 Other livelihood activities ..................................................................................................................... 22

4.2 RESULTS OF THE IN-DEPTH INVESTIGATIONS BY THE DISCIPLINARY TEAMS................................................ 23 4.3 DERIVING A RESEARCH PROGRAMME FROM THE DIAGNOSTIC RESULTS....................................................... 25

5. RESEARCH FOLLOW-UP ............................................................................................................................ 32

5.1 ON-FARM EXPERIMENTS................................................................................................................................ 32 5.2 IN-DEPTH DIAGNOSTIC STUDIES .................................................................................................................... 33

REFERENCES....................................................................................................................................................... 34

ANNEX 1. VILLAGE-BY-VILLAGE LISTING OF PROBLEMS/CAUSES AND OPPORTUNITIES DIAGNOSED BY THE DISCIPLINARY TEAMS IN NAMO........................................................................ 35

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Preface The diagnostic field survey conducted by NAFRI staff and provincial counterparts was conceived as an on-the-job training exercise and it continues to be so even into the analytical phase of the activity during the first round of demonstration. Since the objective is to build capacity and not just get the work done, this report is as much a training exercise as it is a record and analysis of the field data. Data of this type offers a rare and very rich source of insights into the situation in the rural areas, but the insights are not obtained without analysis and many levels of analysis are possible. The aim in this particular report is to produce an accessible and fairly detailed record of the basic findings of the multidisciplinary diagnostic field survey and to relate these findings to the follow-up research actions. The findings from Phonsay are presented in a separate report and a more reflective analytical interpretation of the meaning of the findings from both of the research districts is presented under separate cover in a third report.

1. Population of the research villages in Namo Table 1 shows the population of the research villages in Namo. Table 1. Population of the research villages

Ethnic Group

Village Population

Households

Nuclear Families

Average People per

Family1 Namo Nua Tai Dam 439 82 82 5.4 Mixay Hmong Khao 110 14 20 5.5 Phousang Phousang 268 25 33 8.1 Pangdou Khmu, Hmong 218 31 38 5.7 Pangthong Hmong Khao 218 49 63 3.5 1 This is an estimate calculated by dividing the total population of the village by the number of families. The population of

Mixay village was estimated by the reverse calculation based on an average family size of 5.5 people which was calculated from published statistical data on Namo.

The basic residential unit is the household, which consists of either a single nuclear family or a type of extended family known as a stem family.2 The main ethnic groups are Tai Dam, White Hmong and Phousang, representing, respectively, one Lao Loum and two Lao Soung groups. The Phousang are a rare group, represented by only about four communities in the whole country. Settlement is in nucleated villages with outlying agricultural fields and other lands. All the villages are located along all-weather dirt roads maintained by the District (see location map).

2 A nuclear family is a husband/wife pair and their children. A stem family is a type of extended family comprised of two nuclear families of adjacent generations with one son/husband or daughter/wife who is a member of both families. It is characteristic of residence patterns in the Lao Soung groups in our research villages that a proportion of the households within a village will be composed of stem families, in which the nuclear family is joined by elderly parents who can no longer take care of themselves or by a young married couple who have not yet built their own house. Typically it is based on the male rather than the female lineage, i.e. it is the son’s wife or the elderly parents of the son who join the nuclear family group to form a stem family.

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Figure 1. Location map of the research villages in Namo District, Oudomxay Currently, under a government programme of village relocation in accordance with the “focal area” strategy, the population of the villages is increasing and villages are being amalgamated into larger villages, with the idea of providing basic services (water, medical care, schools, etc.). So far, not many of the expected benefits of relocation have been realized, but population pressures have been increasing in the relocation villages. After the initial diagnostic fieldwork, a special study was undertaken jointly by the Socioeconomic Units and the Land Management Component on land use planning issues identified during the diagnostic exercise and this has been followed up by the Land Mangement Component (LSUAFRP 2002c, 2002d, 2003). The data from this further work sheds considerable light on the various population related concerns raised in this report, and the interested reader is referred to those reports for more detailed information.

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2. Resources

2.1 Land Land allocation was carried out in all of the research villages except one (Mixay) during the period 1996-1998. In this connection it should be said that there are numerous problems concerning land, that some villages feel that land allocation should be redone and that it should perhaps be done in a different way. Several different types of land are recognized by the villagers, some held and managed by households directly and other types held in common by the village as a whole. Among the most important types of land for farming by individual households are: paddy land (na), upland rice fields (hai khao), upland corn fields (hai sali), and various types of gardens (suan), including but not limited to river gardens, home gardens, paper mulberry gardens, etc. Other important categories of land used in common with other villagers (and even other villages) are: grazing land for livestock, streams and riverine environments for fish and other aquatic resources, and forest land providing fuel and timber for subsistence use as well as NTFPs for subsistence and cash for meeting basic needs, including food security during rice deficit months. All of this is very preliminary, since a detailed study of indigenous classification systems and categories for land has not yet been undertaken. Figure 2 shows a sample village resource map based on a sketch map prepared during the group interviews in Namo.

Figure 2. Villager’s sketch map of livelihood resources in Pangdou village (composite map based on the sketch maps from the men’s and women’s group interviews).

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In addition to these locally important categories, there are various categories of land recognized in official maps and statistics. Unfortunately a lot of the official classification system has a forestry bias and most of the different land types important for village livelihood is simply classified as “unstocked forest” or “potential forest.” This classification system not only does not reflect the reality of the rural areas but it also does not provide categories which support local responsibility for conservation of land and other natural resources. Exact quantification of the different types of land held by the villages has proved difficult to achieve during the initial diagnostic field exercise. However, for diagnostic purposes it is extremely important to get some indication of the basic population/land resource ratios in order to compare the situations of the different villages. These are basic diagnostic variables for all of our work.3 Table 2 and the figures that follow depict the most important land types in each village. Table 2. Land resources of the villages.

NA MO

Padi (ha)

Rice hai

(ha)

Padi (ha) per family

Hai (ha)

per family

Population per ha padi

Population per ha hai

Namo Nua 25 15 0.30 0.18 18 29 Mixay 5 7 0.25 0.35 22 16 Phousang 3 50 0.09 1.52 89 5 Pangthong 21 7 0.33 0.11 10 31 The figures with a question mark may reflect questionable field data, which needs to be clarified through further fieldwork.

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Namo Nua Mixay Phousang Pangdou Pangthong

Padi (ha)Rice hai (ha)

Figure 3. Amount of padi and rice hai land in each village (ha)

3 Diagnostic information on such variables as population density, various ratios of population to land, population to other resources, returns to land, returns to labor, etc. are as important to researchers and land use planners as such diagnostic indicators as body temperature, pulse rate, blood pressure, etc. are to the medical practitioner. If we want to cure the various problems of land use and livelihood systems, we have to learn to diagnose these systems like the medical doctor diagnoses a patient. Only then can we make a relevant prescription.

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For diagnostic purpose the most important statistic is not the amount of land per village that purposes but the amount of land per unit of population. Figure 4 uses an averaged estimate of the amount of rice producing land per family as an indicator of this.

0.00

0.20

0.40

0.60

0.80

1.00

1.20

1.40

1.60

1.80

Namo Nua Mixay Phousang Pangdou Pangthong

Hai/famPadi/fam

Figure 4. Average padi and rice hai land per family (ha/fam) Obviously, upland rice farming is far more important for the people of Phousang than for the other villages. This is not too surprising, since Phousang has not been subject to increased population pressures from relocation and/or village merging. Also, the style of land allocation that was done there in 1998 must have been somewhat different, since other interview data indicates that some households in Phousang may be having fallow periods of up to 7-8 years, as compared to 3-4 years in the other villages. This makes a very great difference in terms of the sustainability of the cropping system. If this is really representative of Phousang, it might be a good place to conduct experiments on some of the cash cropping, agroforestry and other land management alternatives that are possible with longer fallow periods but which are not practical in very short fallow systems. The type of farming practiced in Phousang might also provide a useful benchmark for comparison with the more population-pressured cropping systems of the other villages, and it might also give insight into farming conditions experienced by the other villagers prior to the onset of relocation pressures. Contrary to the normal ethnic stereotypes, it is not the Lao Loum village of Nam Nua that has the highest amount of padi land per family but the Hmong village of Pangthong. Mixay, the other Hmong village, is not far behind Pangthong in the size of the average family padi holding. Indeed, padi seems to be the main focus of development interest in all of our predominantly Hmong research villages in both Oudomsay and Luang Phabang. It would be interesting to get a detailed explanation of the history of adoption of padi cultivation by the Hmong population of these villagers and to make a closer examination of the perceived advantages of padi vs. hai in the villagers eyes. Other data from the survey indicate that it is not lack of interest, but lack of sufficient land, labor and capital that is constraining the expansion of padi land in the Hmong villages of our research area. What about other types of land use? Unfortunately, the data (Table 4) on this question are incomplete. An analysis of the full land use system will have to await improved data.

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However, our analysis of the main land resources required for food security in rice does not depend on having all of this additional data.4 Table 3. Percentage of families with different land types in each village.

Land Type % of families having this land type in the different villages Namo Nua Mixay Phousang Pangdou Pangthong Padi 60% 30% No data 29% 15% Rice hai 95% 50% No data -- 32% Corn hai -- 20% No data -- -- River gardens 10% No data 29% 1.5% Other cash crop land

5% 100% No data -- --

2.1.1 General assessment of land resources In Namo Nua the villagers complain that only 60% of the village households have padi land. They have the highest percentage of families owning padi of any of the villagers, but their remarks are made in the context that they are a long established Lao Loum village that probably had a higher percentage of padi owning households in the past. Today, because of population growth, with each generation a lower percentage of families own padi and more and more people are having to supplement padi production by making hai. Unfortunately, access to land for rice hai is limited by the total amount of land allocated to the village and the people of Namo Nua seem now to be coming up against this constraint. The people of Namo Nua also report that they lack sufficient grazing land for large livestock and that they lack sufficient area for making fish ponds. Land pressure in Namo Nua is caused, not by sudden population increase due to relocation, but simply by natural population increase over time. The Namo Nua situation, therefore, would seem to represent, in a sense, “the future” of all villages. We will need to look deeper into this question through additional interviews on village land use history to confirm this interpretation, but for the present it may be regarded as a hypothesis. In their effort to supplement padi production through rice hai the villagers in Namo Nua are experiencing the same constraints that plague the traditional swiddeners of Mixay, Phousang, Pangdou and Pangthong operating under the same pressures; namely, poor and declining soil fertility, increased weeding requirements, and progressively lower yields. This set of interacting problems is known as the “swidden degradation syndrome” (Raintree and Warner 1986) which is discussed further in the analytical overview paper which accompanies these district reports. In any case, the Lao Soung villages of Namo have now turned their primary attention to padi production and, accordingly, the constraints they express concerning land have mainly to do with difficulties in developing more padi land. For example, in Mixay they report that there isn’t in general enough padi land but if they could develop all of the potential padi land in their village they could go from having 5 ha to 12 ha of developed padi land. The main constraints which slow them down in progress

4 The data collection problem is due to the fact that different teams used the survey guidelines in different ways and did not always produce comparable data. Normally this could have been prevented by adequate field training, but there was no possibility for that within the time limits imposed by an administrative decision that the survey of both research districts should be accomplished virtually within the time frame allotted by the trainers for a single district. This is a new kind of research within the research system of Lao PDR. Obviously, the magnitude of the training task was underestimated.

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toward this goal are: lack of plough animals, lack of labor, and lack of capital for hiring labor. In this context, the main categories of people who are currently experiencing “land shortage” in the village are: newcomers, families with opium addicts, and others who lack labor or buffaloes. In Pangdou, the situation of the newly arrived Lao Soung settlers is more precarious than that of the longer settled Lao Theung residents. Land shortage in Pangdou is not evenly distributed. In general there is a shortage of land for padi development and the upland fields are showing the effects of population pressure. In Pangthong, only 15% of households own developed padis but the villagers estimate that as much as 50% of the households could eventually own padis. Lack of labor and money to buy plough animals are the main constraints on the opening of padi land by newcomers. As regards land available for upland rice, they say that the allocated land is enough but because of short fallow, declining fertility and weeding problems, the yield is poor. They do not mention the fact that they could get better yields if they had longer fallows (which would require more land than what has been allocated), but instead focus on the main constraints to padi development, which they perceive as offering higher returns to both land and labor. In their current perspective, it is lowland that is insufficient. This is a very interesting attitude for a so-called “highland” ethnic group. In Phousang, as noted, the picture is different. Land for shifting cultivation is said to be sufficient for most families, and some are reported to operate fallow systems as long as 7-8 years. Ten years is considered more optimal for some of the most productive agroforestry alternatives (e.g. rattan production as part of productive swidden fallows), but 7-8 year is enough to maintain productively of the swidden system without soil degradation and excessive weeding, and it can accommodate a variety of agroforestry cash crops. At present it is unclear how many families might actually be able to maintain fallows of this length. What is clear is that some kind of land shortage is being experienced by 3-4 newcomer families, who don’t have enough land of their own. They can rent land from others but get only soil of poor fertility, which suggests either that there isn’t enough fertile land for everyone or that newcomers cannot avoid falling into the “swidden degradation syndrome” if their poverty prevents them from renting enough land for a long fallow cycle. We should look more closely into the situation of these particular newcomers. Are they in Phousang because of relocation pressures or voluntary migration? Obviously their situation vis-a-vis land is different from newcomers in other villages where land for rice hai itself is already actually scarce. The problems they face might reveal another dimension to the poverty dynamic in Na Mo.

2.2 Livestock and fishery resources The livestock and fish resources of the different villages are shown in Table 4 and Figure 5. Table 4. Livestock resources in the research villages of Namo. Total Number in the Village Average per Family Large

Livestock Pigs & Goats

Poultry Fish Ponds

Large Livestock

Pigs & Goats

Namo Nua 192 180 2570 6 2.3 2.2 Mixay 25 18 33 0 1.3 0.9 Phousang 25 75 14 0 0.8 2.3 Pangdou 59 25 -- 1 1.6 0.7 Pangthong 100 5 30 2 1.6 0.1

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Namo Nua obviously has a higher endowment of livestock than any other village. Again, this does not support the usual ethnic stereotypes, which depict the Hmong as the main livestock keepers. Namo Nua is an old, long established village and the large livestock holdings represent a substantial accumulation of “savings on the hoof,” while the large small stock (pig and goat) population indicates an important role in the cash economy of the village, which is probably an adjustment to growing land scarcity as the population increases.

0

50

100

150

200

250

Namo Nua Mixay Phousang Pangdou Pangthong

Large LivestockPigs and GoatsFish Ponds

Figure 5. Total livestock and fishery resources by village. When we look at the livestock resource figures on a population-adjusted basis, as in Figure 6, we see that Phousang families keep as many smallstock (pigs and goats) as Namo Nua families, on average. These average figures do not depict the real holdings of individual households. Differences between households will be examined in future diagnostic work.

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

Namo Nua Mixay Phousang Pangdou Pangthong

Avg LL/famAvg P&G/fam

Figure 6. Average households livestock holdings by village (livestock head/family). Mixay & Phousang villages report that the availability of fish in the rivers is decreasing, and the Mixay people blame this on other villages coming to into their area to fish. Pangthong villagers report that they have no natural fishery resources, but it is not clear at this time whether this is due to depletion of fish stocks or simply that they have no suitable rivers. Pangdou residents comment that natural fish stocks have decreased because now there are so

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many ways to catch them (net, gun). The making of fish ponds is a relatively new activity. Pangthong and Pangdou are beginning to develop fish ponds but are constrained by a lack of suitable land. Only Namo Nua has a substantial investment in fish ponds (6 ponds). Fish pond development this is likely to be a focus of future activity in all the villages that can find suitable areas for development.

2.3 Forest and NTFP resources No statistical data on forestry and NTFP resources was collected during the initial diagnostic exercise, but the qualitative information indicates that almost all households in all the villages make use of the forest areas as a source of fuelwood and building material for household use, and that collection of NTFPs is a major component of household livelihood systems, both for subsistence use and cash income. All villages expressed concern that the NTFP resources of the area are being depleted. The villagers of Namo Nua said that the area available to them for NTFP collection was insufficient, and that it was there was conflict with other villages over foraging rights. Mixay villagers collect the high value “hed daeng” mushroom for sale to Chinese traders from high forest areas within their village boundaries but were worred that people form other villages might make hai in these special forest areas. The also complained that although they had an agreement with the District over management of their village forests, people from other villages came and collected NTFPs without paying the required fees. It appears that the District has not informed the other villages about this agreement and, in any case, they were not parties to the agreement. Phousang village has a designated conservation forest but it has the same problems as Mixay. The issues here are not only about the declining abundance of NTFP resources but also about the distribution and regulation of rights to use the resources. Perhaps it could be said that if it were managed sustainably the resource base might be adequate, but current management arrangements do not ensure sustainable utilization. Over-collection of NTFPs and inter-village conflicts over use rights are a major problem. As all villagers have the same complaint, it is likely that the problem needs an inter-village organizational solution. Unfortunately, at present the land use planning and land allocation procedures do not give sufficient attention to inter-village utilization patterns and problems, and do not seek solutions at a higher than village level of organization, such as inter-village agreements and joint planning of forest management regulations and practices, as would seem to be required.

3. Problems within the Household Livelihood Systems During the group interviews on household livelihood systems in the villages we used a universal “basic needs” checklist as a entry point for discussion with the villagers. The principle behind this checklist is that, in one form or another, all households must satisfy certain basic needs in all or most of the following categories: food, energy, shelter, medicine, cash to buy those things that cannot be produced, and some possibility for savings/investment to meet future needs. In addition to these direct needs, there are some indirect needs that are so important and universal as to qualify for inclusion in this basic needs list. They are: feed for livestock and raw materials for cottage industries.

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Different households in different environments satisfy their basic needs in different ways. We use “systems thinking” to help us understand the local variations as part of a generalized livelihood system. Whatever is used to meet a basic needs is an output from a basic needs supply system. All these systems together constitute the supply subsystems of the Household Livelihood System. This relates to the lower level production subsystems as follows:

Household Livelihood System Basic Needs Subsystems Components of Basic Needs Subsystems Direct Needs (outputs consumed directly by the household) • Food crops, livestock, NTFPs, purchased foods • Energy firewood from forests & fallows, crop residues, etc. • Shelter timber, NTFPs, purchased building materials • Medicine NTFPs, purchased medicines • Cash short term cash crops, livestock, NTFPs, cottage industries, etc. • Savings/Investment long term savings/investments in livestock, trees, cash banks, etc. Indirect Needs (major inputs for producing outputs that are consumed by the household) • Feed for livestock grasses, forage, crop residues, feed crops • Raw material for

cottage industries NTFPs, timber, crops, purchased materials

The Household Livelihood System is the top level of the present analysis. The diagnostic assessment at this level focuses on finding out: • how the average households intends to satisfy their needs in each of these categories

(these are the household’s livelihood objectives), • whether they have any problems in meeting their objectives in each of the categories

(these are supply problems), • the general nature of these supply problems (e.g. insufficient rice for 3 months of the year,

lack of cash to purchase supplementary food, lack of firewood, difficulty in feeding livestock at the end of the dry season, etc.)

In the process of conducting the interview we find out what form of products are used to satisfy these needs and whether it is the household’s objective to meet all of their needs by direct production or to generate cash to purchase some of the needed goods. We also discover whether any of the subsystems might be absent or only weakly developed. For example, poor households might not have a savings/investment enterprise, but if they do it is likely to take the form of “savings on the hoof” (livestock investments) or investment in long terms savings in the form of tree plantations. What makes savings/investment enterprises different from the normal weekly cash flow enterprises is that they are used only infrequently for large expenditures, for example when the family needs extra cash to build a new house for a newly married couple or to respond to a medical emergency by selling large livestock or large timber trees from their own plantations. In the analysis of the data from this part of the interview any difficulties reported are regarded as “problems” at the level of the livelihood system (household economy) itself. At the next level of diagnosis we focus on the technical problems or constraints in the production subsystems or components that supply these basic needs to the household, e.g. the cropping systems, the livestock systems, forestry/agroforestry/ntfp components, etc. Difficulties at this

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level can be regarded as “problems” in their own right but they are also causes of the problems at the livelihood system level. There is a tendency for researchers from different disciplines to argue over what is “the problem,” but in fact there is never only one problem. We are always dealing with interlinking chains of causes and effects. What is a problem at one level is a cause at the next. By becoming aware of these linkages we see how problems at the technical level relate back the problems of the household economy or livelihood system. A parallel set of linkages exist on the design side as a series of means-ends linkages. What is an end at one level is a means at the next. Altogether they constitute the series of interlinking actions that produce the results needed to satisfy the objectives of the system managers (in this case, the household decision-makers). In our diagnostic analysis we focus not only on problems but on the combination “problems-and-opportunities.” What good is a diagnosis unless it leads to a prescription? The methodological principle here is that a good diagnosis of the problem is often all that is needed to identify a solution. In the interview it is easy to move the focus of discussion from problems to solutions and back again, to explore a whole range of possible approaches and find out which ones make sense to the villagers. Finally, although the researchers may have their own ideas about the nature of possible solutions, during the diagnostic interviews our primary purpose is to understand what kinds of strategies the villagers themselves have for solving their problems. They definitely have such strategies and they will definitely give priority to their own strategies when attempting to do something about their problems. For this reason the indigenous strategies and technologies are often the best starting point for a dialog about how researchers might help the villagers find better solutions and the best entry point for on-farm trails. By building on the foundation of the indigenous technology researchers have the best chance of making sure the experiments are understood. The researchers own analysis of the problems and possible solutions might not be the same as the villagers but the point is to pay sufficient attention to the villagers way of thinking to engage them in a productive dialog about problems and possible solutions. If the researchers cannot relate to the villagers way of thinking, how can they expect the villagers to relate to theirs? The goal is to create a shared understanding of the local problems and opportunities that can serve as the basis for joint on-farm experimentation. Over time the experimental process itself will teach many lessons to both the farmers and the researchers.

3.1 Food Security The objective of all household livelihood systems in the research area is to eat rice every day. As such, one of the most important indicators of the performance of these systems, and of poverty in general, is the number of months in which a household does not have enough rice to eat. This interpretation is supported by the rural people’s own poverty assessment, as reported in the National Participatory Poverty Analysis (GOL 2001), which identifies rice shortage as the main indicator of poverty. The information in Table 6 refers to the number of months in which the household cannot meet its rice consumption needs from its own production.

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Months of Rice Shortage

0123456789

Namo Nua Mixay Phousang Pangdou Pangthong

Figure 7. Number of months of rice shortage reported in the group interviews. What the group interview data tell us is that normally all villages experience a minimum of 3 to 4 months of rice insufficiency in a year, extending to a maximum of 5 or 6 months in some years. In Pangthong the villagers reported that they once experienced 11 months of rice shortage during one particular year when they were not able to burn their fields and therefore could not plant or harvest any upland rice at all. Pangdou reports the longest period of rice insufficiency (6-8 months). There are a lot of new comers in Pangdou but it is not very clear at this time why these figures should be quite as high as they are (they are actually more in line with the level of rice shortage in Phonsay than in Namo). The average in the research villages is in line with the results of the National Participatory Poverty Assessment, which reports an average of 4.8 months of rice insufficiency in Oudomsay. The average in our research villages is 4.9 months. The villagers own assessment is also broadly consistent with a estimation of annual rice deficit based on the combined total of padi and rice hai in each village, as shown in Table 6 and Figure 7. Table 5. Estimated rice production capacity

Estimated Village Rice Production

Capacity (kg)

Est. Per Capita Rice Production

Capacity (kg/pers)

Estimated

Rice Sufficiency (% of Ann. Req.)

Estimated

Rice Deficit (% of Ann. Req.)

Namo Nua 85,000 194 55% 45% Mixay 23,000 209 60% 40% Phousang 82,500 308 88% 12% Pangdou 56,000 257 73% 27% Pangthong 63,000 289 83% 17% These estimates are based on the reported areas of padi and rice hai, an assumed standard yield of 2.5 tons/ha from padi, 1.5 tons/ha from hai, and an assumed consumption standard of 350 kg/person/year. These are indicative figures, averaged out for the village as a whole, and do not reflect differences with may exist between individual households.

If we compare Figure 7 and Figure 8 there appears to be an inconsistency in regard to Phousang and Phangthong and, to a lesser extent, Pangdou, which seem to have a lower calculated rice deficit than would be expected on the basis of the reported number of months of rice scarcity. People’s reporting of rice deficit months in rural Laos is a standard criterion

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of poverty assessment and is generally thought to be fairly reliable (people know how many months they lack rice to eat); whereas, people’s reporting of land areas is generally thought to be less reliable. So it could be that the calculated rice production capacity is an overestimate, but this would not explain why it should be overestimated in Phousang, Pangdou and Pangthong but not in Namo Nua and Mixay.

Estimated Rice Deficit

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

50%

Namo Nua Mixay Phousang Pangdou Pangthong

Figure 8. Estimated rice deficit as a percentage of the annual rice consumption requirement, based on calculated rice production capacity in each village. It is more likely that the discrepancy is due to inequality of land holdings. Phousang, Pangdou and Pangthong are all resettlement villages and they both report that the newcomers experience land shortage. Since people with inadequate land cannot produce an adequate amount of rice, having a significant number of people with inadequate land would tend to extend the upper range of the number of months of rice shortage reported for these villages. At this time we lack the detailed household level data that would be required to confirm this interpretation with any certaintainty, but it would seem to be a reasonable hypothesis for further diagnostic work. Continuation of diagnostic studies on the question of food insecurity in all the villages seems justified by the initial diagnostic findings. In any case, it is already clear that there is a serious food security problem in the research villages of Namo. In thinking about solutions it is important to recognize that the villagers already have strategies for coping with this problem. Their main strategy for dealing with annual rice shortages is to collect NTFPs or sell cash crops or small livestock to get money to purchase rice. It is also likely that a certain amount of substitution of less valued staple foods (e.g. root crops) takes place, but in Laos this is considered a less preferable solution. The norm is to try to maintain rice consumption by doing something to earn money to buy rice. Although cash crop production is increasing, the collection and sale of NTFPs still appears to be the main coping strategy. However, all villages reported increasing difficulties in following this strategy, since NTFPs are becoming scarce. The people of Pangdou explained this very clearly when they commented that “It is difficult to earn money because the number of things to sell have decreased.” Localized increase in the density of population, whether it is due to relocation or spontaneous migration, has a doubly negative effect on food security: first by reducing the amount of land available for household use by moving new families onto a fixed land base, and secondly by increasing population pressure on local NTFP resources, causing over-harvesting and

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degradation of the resource base. Villagers in all four locations are attempting to cope with this situation by increasing cash crop production, but without adequate extension and financial support this is proving difficult. Whether the situation will become critical before the people can complete the transition to an alternative system of livelihood cannot easily be predicted. What is clear is that the local population is not receiving anything close to the kind of support it needs for a speedy transition with low human costs. If adequate support cannot be provided over the short term, then it might be wise to amend the targets that drive artificially increased population densities. Specific problems for the various cropping systems, animal raising activities, etc. that comprise the components of the food supply subsystem of the household livelihood system are reported below under the different production subsystems.

3.2 Cash income, savings and investment Few households will report having “enough” cash income and all are trying in one way or another to increase it. The main sources of income for meeting weekly cash flow needs are sale of NTFPs, cash crops and small livestock, and sale of household labor for wage income. In addition to this a small number of households engage in petty trading or operate a small shop. Although weaving and blacksmithing activities are present, they mainly for subsistence purposes and the only commercial cottage industry that we could detect was silk production by the women of Namo Nua. It is possible that we missed some small scale or incipient commercial activities. This is an area of the household economy that we need to look into further. Saving/investment enterprises are distinguished from normal income generation by the size and infrequency of transactions. They are mainly to meet investment objectives, major expenditures and contingencies. Breeding of large livestock (cattle and buffalo) is the main savings/investment enterprise in the villages. Sale of cattle or buffalo occurs only infrequently in order to meet major expenses. The raising and sale of poultry, pigs and goats is considered to be part of the normal cash flow system, rather than a savings/investment enterprise. Capital formation through investment in fruit trees, fish ponds, and padi development is also occurring in the villages. Investment in forest plantations is not a major activity at present, possibly due to tenure uncertainty but also to lack of technical and marketing knowledge, planting materials, etc. Village-specific constraints and observations include:

• Namo Nua said they had difficulty producing and selling products because of lack of credit and transportation (Namo Nua). A weaving project bought sewing machines for women in Namo Nua but if they had credit they’d invest more in weaving and in leaf gardens for silk making.

• Mixay said they don’t have many products to sell but would like to have some good cash crop programmes to participate in. They would like to invest in expanding their padi area.

• Phousang villagers mentioned the need to increase their livestock holdings, as some households have to hire the livestock of others in order to get their ploughing done. (It wasn’t clear which crops this refers to.) A project set up a rice bank in their village, which has now been converted to a credit bank.

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• Pangdou villagers point up the problem of decreasing NTFP resources in their comment that “It is difficult to earn money because the number of things to sell have decreased.” Their solution is to “expand the NTFP area.”

• Pangthong villagers don’t mention any specific problems with cash. They have a Village Fund for Savings but complain of a high interest rate. They say they would like to invest in para rubber trees and buy buffalo to make more padis.

Probably the biggest single constraint on the growth of investment in savings/investment enterprises and cash crops, apart from the land constraint, is the lack of a vigorous extension programme in the rural areas. Villagers are clearly interested in new alternatives but so far they have little opportunity to learn about new production possibilities. One source of information about new opportunities which does exist, however, in Namo is exposure to Chinese traders seeking new sources of supply for products traded in China. Not too far from our research villages on the new road to China, farmers have responded to opportunities to produce sugar cane for the factory across the border in Mengla, Yunnan. The factory offers an effective extension package in the form of technical instruction, planting materials, fertilizer, barbed wire for fencing, and a production loan. The technical package includes a requirement that the farmers construct ridges or micro-terraces in order to grow sugar cane on sloping land. Within the research villages themselves the most striking example of Chinese influence is the drying oven for hed daeng mushrooms which was constructed in Ban Mixay by a Chinese trader in order to ensure the quality of the mushrooms he comes to purchase during the rainy season. The latest information is that he pays 140,000 Kip/kg at the farm gate for grade A dried mushrooms, which fetch 120 Yuan/kg in China. This is a good example of a profitable new specialty crop of the type that should be encouraged for Oudomsay. One indirect effect of this new product is an increased interest on the part of the Mixay villagers in protective arrangements for sustainable production in the special forest areas where this mycchorizal mushroom occurs. Being close to the Chinese border and the trade opportunities that entails is an important asset for the people of Na Mo, but this potential has only just begun to be tapped by the population of the research villages. Specific problems for the various specific components of the cash subsystem of the household economy (i.e. the different production subsystems and components) are reported in the next section of this report.

3.3 Household energy and shelter The form of energy used by the household in greatest abundance is fuelwood. It is simply collected from the nearby forest areas and everyone reports that it is not a problem at present. The same applies to the small amounts of timber and other natural building materials that are collected for subsistence purposes from the forest. This is not a problem, although villagers did comment on the high cost of supplementary building materials purchased in town. Some villages, for example Phousang, have instituted a fee of 5,000 kip for collection of building materials from the village forest area.

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3.4 Livestock feed Animals husbandry is basic to the livelihood strategies of the villages and so livestock feed may also be considered a basic need of the household economy. The people of Ban Namo Nua reported a shortage of land for grazing livestock and also lack of land for making fish ponds. These are also land problems but it is good to recognized that they are ultimately felt by the household economy as a feed shortage problem that prevents them from expanding their livestock/fish enterprises. There may be other ways of solving the feed problem without increasing the amount of land used, i.e. through some form of intensification (e.g. forage plots, cut-and-carry feeding, production of higher quality feed crops, etc.). Feeding problems were not specifically mentioned in the group interviews by the other villages but they had a lot of concerns about disease problems. Obviously, Namo Nua, whose main problem is shortage of land/feed and has little problem with disease, is somewhat farther along the livestock development curve than the other villages.

3.5 Cottage industry Cottage industries are of two types: 1) production for subsistence use, and 2) commercial production for sale in the market. Here we must recognize the importance of the spinning, weaving and sewing of clothing activities that are undertaken almost purely for subsistence purposes in all the villages. This is a valuable tradition skill which predates clothes factory production by several thousand years. It is remarkable the extent to which this cottage industry, based on cotton and silk, is still practiced in the villages of Namo Nua today. Part of the reason for this remarkable continuity is the close association of ethnic identity with traditional forms of dress. The modern production system simply does not produce the correct ethnic clothing. This is something that the village women do. It is a laborious activity that takes up a large amount of the women’s time and it makes a valuable contribution to the household economy. If they didn’t do it they would have to spend limited cash resources to buy all their families clothing. A certain amount of cash is spent to purchase modern style clothing in any case, but it would be much more without this subsistence production. This is part of the “hidden economy” of the household that doesn’t get reported in government statistics, which only track cash income. Nevertheless “a kip saved is a kip earned.” It is said that the most valuable part of the average American farm is the kitchen garden because this is the only part that produces products that can be valued at retail prices. The same logic applies to subsistence production by Lao farmers. Whatever they can produce themselves they don’t have to buy. When they sell their rice they can only get something less than the wholesale price, but when they consume it directly what they save is the cost of having to purchase it at the retail price. The difference can be thought of as a shadow profit. It occurs whenever the household consumes something rather than selling it. By this logic subsistence products are more valuable than commercial products. This is the wisdom of the rural people – they recognize the value of subsistence production in economic terms even if this is not understood by government planners and other city folk who no longer have any connection with the subsistence economy. In any case, from the group interviews with women it is clear that the spinners and weavers would also like to be able to use their skills to earn cash income under their direct control, but they report that there is no market for the “ordinary” ethnic cloth that they produce. The women of Namo Nua have had some experience with attempts to market their traditional Tai

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Dam cloth, but they say the markets they have access to are full of cloth of this type and there is little demand for what they produce. The only products for which they say they have a reasonable market is silk. Women of all the research villages produce cotton cloth but only Namo Nua produces silk. Silk rearing and thread spooling is a commercial cottage industry in Namo Nua. The silk spools are sold to itinerant traders or taken to the market in Luang Namtha where they fetch a better price. The women say they would like to identify better markets and think that some kind of group marketing approach might benefit them. They have already had some experience with a project that gave them sewing machines. Perhaps they also received some training about marketing, but so they don’t seem to have been able to turn it to their advantage. Other cottage industries in the area include blacksmithing and rice milling. Blacksmithing is reported to be a “subsistence” activity but in fact, it is a technical specialty with few practitioners so it would be reasonable to expect that the village blacksmith would be paid for his services. Possibly barter payment is accepted. In any case it seems to exist within an economic sphere which stays pretty much within the boundaries of the village, presumably because other villages also have their blacksmiths. We simply do not know how these “minor” livelihood activities work. Many details of the livelihood systems of the research villages must await a time when the Socioeconomics team can undertake a more systematic survey of cottage industries and other less prominent livelihood activities. What we do know is that the household economy of rural Lao is often based on a “multi-livelihood system” comprised of a large number of small activities.

3.6 Medicine and health care We may also suspect that the use of medical plants is prevalent in the research villages but this is not something we have much data about as yet. Actually this is a rather specialized subject that requires a painstaking data collection and was considered too specialized for inclusion in the first round of diagnostic fieldwork. What we did pick up at this initial level of assessment was some of the villagers’ health care concerns, especially from the women’s groups. The women of Namo Nua and Pangthong complained that they didn’t have a Health Care Center and the people of Ban Mixay commented that they had toilets but didn’t use them because this hasn’t been part of their experience in the past. Ban Pangthong women also commented on the need for clean water. Apparently, the village standpipes are part of the government’s infrastructure package that has yet to be delivered. Having to fetch water is a very burdensome task for the women and children and limits their opportunity for engagement in more productive activities. Some of the Lao Soung women also gave an insight into their concerns about their community’s involvement with opium. They said that families who had husbands who planted opium needed to change their source of income, but that they did not know how to change. The also said that in families in which the husbands smoked opium, the women and children were sometimes hurt because of this and that they needed some organization that had the power to force the men to stop smoking opium, some kind of drug rehabilitation programme. Opium use varies greatly between different households and between different villages. Some Lao Soung villages in the research area are strongly against the use of opium, while others have no strict policy on this matter. Contrary to stereotypes it is not a pastime of the majority of Lao Soung people in our research villages and there are no easy conclusions to be drawn about it.

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It should also be stated plainly that opium is very difficult to replace as a cash crop. This is illustrated by an interesting anomaly uncovered during our follow-up diagnostic fieldwork on the land use dispute involving one of the research villages. The relocation programme is one of the lead policy instruments in the government’s drive to eradicate opium. However, since there is not enough land in the relocation villages the only way some Lao Soung families can acquire enough land to survive on is to buy padi land from the older residents of the area. And how could they get enough money to buy padi land? Only through opium production. So in order to comply with the relocation programme some of the villagers we talked to reckon they have to grow opium for another 5 years! Paradoxically, one consequence of one of the government’s major programmes for opium eradication is, in some cases, the need to continue opium production in order to comply with the programme. There are many paradoxes of development, but this must be one of the most interesting. What it suggests in terms of practical alternatives is: • the need for training in quantitative methods for district level land use planning and better

coordination between programmes (land allocation & relocation) so that people won’t be put into situations in which they don’t have enough land to meet their basic livelihood needs

• better research-extension support for families in the relocation villages who are trying to make the transition toward alternative cash crop economies.

4. Problems within the Production Subsystems and Components The causes of the “supply problems” discussed in section 3 are themselves problems at the level of the production subsystems and components. The field team collected two different kinds of data on this level of the diagnostic analysis:

1. Group interviews conducted by interdisciplinary teams 2. Field visits and interviews conducted by disciplinary teams

Everyone participated in both kinds of teams, first conducting group interviews (with separate groups for men and women and, in some case, for different ethnic groups) and then going on to join a disciplinary team to follow-up on and go deeper into the general problem areas identified by the interdisciplinary teams. In the group interview part of the diagnostic exercise the fieldworkers were to find out which crops, livestock, etc. were grown and to identify whatever problems and opportunities existed in each production subsystem or component. While these guidelines can be used anywhere, not every area will have the same crops or production systems, so the results will be always be area-specific.

4.1 Group interview results for Namo

4.1.1 Cropping systems

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Padi rice Namo Nua reported problems with gall midge, other pests, and damage by wild pigs. Pangthong also reported a gall midge problem when it rains a lot and problems with water control. They said they could only plant traditional varieties in standing water but were experimenting with new varieties from Vietnam and China. Nearly all villages report a shortage of land for padi development.

Upland rice All villages reported problems associated with the classic “swidden degradation syndrome”: declining fertility, increased weeding problems requiring excessive labor (especially affecting women), and declining yields. Other problems reported were: wild pig and grass hopper damage, gall midge, stem borers and “pests which eat the roots of the rice.” Pangthong complained of the lack of “modern varieties.

Horticultural crops and other upland field crops

Other crops reported were: corn, sesame watermelon, cucumber, chili, eggplant, pumpkin, large gourd, cabbage, lettuce, opium and fruit trees. The group interviews did not have the time go far into the problems of these crops, but they are the focus of subsequent in-depth interviews by the Cropping Systems Team (see disciplinary interview results under Cropping Systems). Namo Nua seemed to be most heavily involved in commercial production of horticultural crops (cucumber, watermelon, cabbage) and reported marketing problems in the form of transport difficulties and low prices. The watermelon was promoted by and is sold to a trader from China but apparently they would like to find additional markets. The other villages were not so heavily involved in these cash crops because, they said, there was “no market” for them. There is always a market somewhere, what they really meant is that no traders came to their village to buy these crops. The villagers attitude itself can be diagnosed as a problem of “passive marketing,” which is one of the most important constraints to cash crop expansion in the transitional economies of Southeast Asia. This can be taken up in the market research to be carried out by the SEU and others.

4.1.2 Livestock Cattle and buffalo

Both cattle and buffalo are produced in Mixay, but the emphasis in the other villages is clearly on cattle. Namo Nua reported lack of grazing land for cattle, but the other villages indicated that they had sufficient grazing land. Mixay reported problems with crop damage caused by free grazing of livestock. This is probably a general problem affecting the other villages as well.

Pigs and poultry All villages produce pigs and poultry and all reported big problems with disease.

Goats Mixay, Phousang and Pangthong reported having goats but mentioned no problems with them. (Presumably there might be some problems

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with crop damage.)

Fish Four villages reported having fish ponds: Namo Nua (6), Pangthong (5), Pangdou (1) and Phousang (1). Namo Nua said that they have a problem with flooding during the rainy season and that they lacked sufficient land for making more ponds. Mixay said they wanted to have fish ponds but have no money for digging ponds and no experience. All villages expressed concerns that the natural fish population in the rivers and streams is decreasing. The people of Pangdou said this was because now “there are many ways to catch them” and specifically mentioned nets and guns.

Wild animals All villages reported that wildlife availability in the area is decreasing. Natural resources problems reported under the last two entries do not really relate to the “livestock” subsystem, but the field teams recorded this data so it is reported here anyway. More will be said about fish and wildlife resources below.

4.1.3 Non-timber forest products Bitter bamboo shoots

All villages collected bitter bamboo shoots for household use and sale to traders and only one village gave it less than 1st priority among NTFPs (Mixay gave it 2nd priority, after hed daeng). All except Mixay reported that the natural product was becoming scarce in the forest. Phousang reported that the area of bamboo forest was decreasing because of the expansion of hai. Solutions proposed by the villagers included: Management and improvement of the existing bamboo forest (Namo Nua) and creation and management of a bamboo conservation area (Phousang). All villages reported marketing problems: reliance on middlemen (Namo Nua), low and unstable prices (Mixay, Phousang and Pangthong), and high transport cost due to distance from the market (Phousang).

Hed daeng mushroom

This is the number one NTFP for Mixay, where is collected, dried in a drying oven and sold at a high price to a trader who comes from China to buy it during the season. The Chinese trader is the one who helped them to build the drying oven so that he could be sure of having good quality mushrooms. The Mixay people say the mushroom is beginning to become scarce and they are concerned that people from other villages will make hai in the special forest area (Pa Koh) in the high mountains where this mushroom is found (it appears to be a mycorrhizal mushroom associated with the Koh tree). Their proposed solution to this problem is to conserve and protect the Pa Koh forest, but they don’t know how to go about setting this up.

Cardamom Cardamom for use in the traditional Chinese medicine system is the second most important NTFP for Phousang, Pangdou and Pangthong and the third for Mixay. It was not mentioned by Namo Nua. It is reported to be scarce (Phousang) or starting to become scarce (Mixay and Pangthong). The solution suggested by the villagers is to replant and manage cardamom in

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forest gardens. All three villages report that the price offered by the cardamom traders is unstable, and Phousang offered the explanation that this is because the quality is low. It is known that a common cause of poor quality in cardamom is pre-mature harvesting caused by competition between collectors for this open-access resource. However, none of the field teams reported this diagnosis so this would have to be verified by further interviews.

Peuak meuak (tud tiang, nang niow)

This bark which is sold to traders for use in making incense in China is the fourth most important NTFP and is collected in Namo Nua, Mixay and Phousang. It is reported to be already scarce (Namo Nua) or becoming scarce (Mixay, Phousang), and Phousang adds that this is due to people making hai in the area where it is collected. The solution identified by the villagers was to replant it and manage it. Marketing problems include reliance on middlemen who sometimes don’t come (Namo Nua) and unstable prices (Mixay and Phousang).

The situation with NTFPs is alarming. All villages report increasing scarcity of the NTFP resources on which they depend for cash income and for money to buy rice during the periods of annual deficit. This threatens both food security and cash income security. Cash cropping alternatives are not developing fast enough to replace the traditional reliance on NTFPs, and the diagnosed limitations on access to land raise questions even about the ultimate potential of cash crop solutions. The villages seem to be caught in a vicious cycle of poverty caused by resource degradation due to dramatically expanding population pressure on resources, which itself is due to multiple causes: natural population increase, constraints on access to land due to land allocation, relocation and voluntary migration. Another aspect of the pressure on natural resources is the inability of the villagers to regulate collection and avoid over-harvesting of NTFPs. The tentative diagnosis of pre-mature harvesting of cardamom under competition between collectors is a case in point. This is a classic syndrome encountered in open-access resource situations, where no one is willing to restrain their harvesting practices only to have others come and take the entire harvest. The villagers in Ban Mixay articulated what is probably a general perception in the area as a whole: that there is not enough supply of NTFPs in their village forest areas to meet their own village’s needs because people from other villages are coming to collect these NTFPs. The Mixay people said they had an agreement with the District that allowed them to demand a fee for NTFP collection by outsiders, but apparently the District didn’t inform the other villages about this agreement. The Mixay villagers anxiety about people from other villages (Phousang?) coming to make hai in the special Pa Koh forest areas where they harvest the valuable hed daeng mushroom is a classic case of the need for some kind of community forestry regulatory system based upon inter-village agreements. The fact of these inter-village problems points up a gap in the current system of governance vis-à-vis natural resource management in the rural areas. There needs to be some kind of area-based governance system at an intermediate between the village level and the district level precisely to handle these crucial, livelihood-threatening issues of inter-village natural resource management. It is pure fantasy to image that laws and regulations promulgated in the capital city will have any impact on these problems, unless there is a corresponding effort to build up locally controlled and participatory governance structures. The villagers know they need something like this, but they don’t exactly know how to do it and they don’t

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themselves have the authority to make it happen. This is precisely what governments are for, but in reality there is little experience with the facilitation of this kind of local organizational development in Lao PDR. For this reason, the vacuum vis-a-vis inter-village community forestry organization is a major diagnosed opportunity for LSUAFRP. It could be conceived as a pilot effort which could be taken up by NAFRI under the heading of action research.

4.1.4 Other livelihood activities Fishing Virtually all households in all the villages engage in fishing for home

consumption. Everyone reports that fish are becoming scarce in the natural waterways. Pangthong goes so far as to say they no longer fish because there are no fish to be caught, and Pangdou explains that this is becauser there are so many new ways to catch them. Given the importance of fish in the local diet this is a very alarming situation and should be investigated in-depth by an expert inventory of natural fishery resources. Three of the four villages seem to be interested in making fish ponds but, as noted above, some are limited by lack of land (Namo Nua) and others by lack of labor and lack of experience (Mixay). The entire situation of natural fishery resource stocks and the need for aquacultural solutions should be the subject of further in-depth diagnostic investigations by a team from LARReC.

Trading A few people in each of the villages engage in a limited amount of petty trading but the exact situation is still unclear. For example in Namo Nua it has been reported that 5-10% of the households trade watermelons, cumcumbers and other vegetables with China. Although this information was recorded under “trading” on the open-ended survey form is not clear whether this actually refers to trading as a livelihood activity (i.e. the buying and selling of goods for profit) or whether it is just the farm gate sale of produce to outside traders. In the case of Mixay and Phousang, however, it is clear that a few women buy, transport and sell

Weaving As reported above under cottage industries, the women of all the villagers produce cotton cloth and make clothes for themselves as a valuable subsistence activity. Only Namo Nua appears to be producing silk for the market and they express an interest in expanding their markets for silk and traditional silk cloth. The women of other villages appear to be aware of the value of weaving as a potential income source for and by women, but they would require assistance with product development, training and marketing. At this point it is unclear whether existing market channels (e.g. selling to tourists and other Laos through regional markets) would support a larger volume of products coming on to the market at this time. This is a question for marketing research by the Socioeconomics Unit.

Other cottage industries

As noted above under cottage industries, blacksmithing and wood sawing by hand are done in some (all?) of the villages on a small scale. It is unclear whether this is only for subsistence use or whether it is also sold commercially. Possibly there is no scope under existing forest regulations for expansion of commercial sawing operations. Likewise, it is unknown

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whether there is a potential for expanding the market for blacksmith products. In any case, it would affect so few people that it probably does not deserve priority attention. Possibly its best and most important opportunity is to remain as a viable subsistence activity within the village barter economy, thus making a significant economic contribution by reducing the need to spend cash for outside products. The proper assessment of this and other “minor” livelihood activities must await a time when the Socioeconomics Unit has sufficient time, capability and personnel resources to conduct a systematic investigation of the intra-household and intra-village domestic economy, including a whole raft of gender-specific questions concerning improvements in the productivity of and returns to women’s and men’s labor (not to mention old folks and children!). Alternatively, perhaps this is better conceived as a fertile field for student research projects undertaken by participants in NAFRI’s collaborative research networks, under the auspices of the HRD programme and the general supervision of the Socioeconomics Unit and the provincial management offices.

Wage labor The poorest households in all the villages sell their labor in order to get cash to buy rice. This is the only situation in which wage labor is mentioned. Typically the laborers perform weeding and portage work for their wealthier neighbors in the village.

4.2 Results of the in-depth investigations by the disciplinary teams After reviewing the main outcomes of the group interviews midway through the diagnostic fieldwork, the researchers regrouped along disciplinary lines to follow-up with another round of field visits and interviews to obtain a more in-depth understanding of the exact nature of the problems detected during the group interviews and the cause-effect sequences involved in generating these problems. They also attempted to understand what they villagers were doing to try to address these problems and causes and then they went on to explore a range of alternative solutions, including ideas originating from both the farmers and the researchers. The four disciplinary groups were: 1) Cropping systems, 2) Livestock, 3) Forestry, and 4) Socioeconomics (including Farm Machinery because of the labor dimension). In analyzing the enormous amount of detailed information which came from the field investigations the data from the field notes were first summarized in tables and then transferred to an Excel spreadsheet where they could be sorted and rearranged until the patterns became clear. These findings are very detailed and are best summarized in tables. The first tables presents and overview of the problems/causes and opportunities as perceived by the different disciplines for Namo as a whole, and the second table presents the results on a village-by-village basis. Table 6. Disciplinary overview of problems and opportunities in Namo District (see Annex 1 for a village-by-village breakdown).

Discipline Subsystem Problems/Causes and Opportunities

Weeds after short fallow Pests - rats, birds, wild pigs, ants Pests - white grubs? in wet years

Cropping systems

Upland rice (hai)

Poor burn if early rains (more weeds, low fertility)

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Discipline Subsystem Problems/Causes and Opportunities Drought in some years Lodging of rice due to strong wind Lodging of corn Pests - weevils damage seed Harvest during rain causes poor storage quality of corn

Upland corn (hai sali)

Pests - rates, pigs, squirrel, 'people' Lack of lowland rice land (naa)

Lowland rice Lack of investment capital for making paddies, buying buffalo Lack of knowledge on suitable varieties Pests - rice gall midge Pests - grasshoppers, caterpillars, rats, wild pigs, birds Lack of experience with lowland rice cultivation Late transplanting due to irregular rains Late transplanting due to irregular rains Lodging of rice

Lowland wet season rice

Lack of water Poor seed germination due to low temperatures Lack of knowledge on dry season rice cropping (seed bed, transplanting) Pests - grasshoppers, white caterpillars, ants, rats

Lowland dry season rice

Harvest during rain causes poor storage quality (rice) High investment requirement, bank credit comes too late No permanent cropping possible on the same land Use of a lot of chemicals

Irrigated dry season melon

Market quite limited? Local varieties have small fruits Traditional low inputs management (planting, cultural practices) Difficulty fencing out livestock Limited markets Pests - rats . . .

Fruit

Mortality of some species due to cool fog (chilling damage) Mortality due to entero toxemia Mortality due to Thuktea (cattle drinking from river) Internal and external parasites Lack of vaccination Lack of interest in vaccination Limited availability of veterinary services

Large livestock (buffalo & cattle)

Slack village regulations concerning livestock management Mortality due to diseases Lack of vaccination Disease spreads easily to animals feeding near the road Lack of investment capital for small livestock

Livestock

Small livestock (poultry & pigs)

Lack of feed for small livestock Limited area for fish ponds Lack of skill in fish pond making Lack of fingerlings Limited fresh water

Fish ponds

Low temperature, long winter limits fish pond production

Fisheries

Frog culture Lack of technology of frog culture Area and yield of bamboo reduced due to upland field clearing Illegal harvesting of shoots & stems

Forestry

Bitter bamboo

Transport is difficult as bamboo areas are far from the road

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Discipline Subsystem Problems/Causes and Opportunities Limited area, dispersed Grows only in specific areas, limited potential for expansion Diseases (white fungus?) Irregular yield (no yield when high rainfall) Irregular price

Cardamom

Low quality due to premature harvesting Grows dispersed in natural forest

Tout tiang, peuak meuak, nang noiw Limited interest of farmers

Difficulties and conflicts still exist over village land use Not all stages of land use planning/allocation have been completed Lowland paddy land is limited Area is steep and mountainous Low yields of upland crops in steep lands Low yields of upland crops in steep lands

Land use

High erosion in short fallow land Land disputes between Pangthong & Kokfat (paddy, hai, NTFP area) Shortage of cultivable land for relocated people of Kokfat Mixay, Phusang, Natao & Keola villages have conflict over NTFP area Some lands between villages remain unassigned

Land use planning

Unfinished negotiations and land use planning/land allocation processes Unstable prices Difficulty in finding buyers

Marketing

Dependence on traders coming to the villagers (passive marketing) Difficulty in transporting products Loss of quality through long storage

Transportation and storage

Lack of local vehicles Lack of labor and low labor productivity (weeding and harvesting)

Labor productivity Lack of labor-saving tools Technical problems with existing household enterprises (e.g. silk worms)

Socioeconomics

Household enterprises Lack of capital to invest in household enterprises

Lack of labor and low labor productivity Lack of improved tools and knowledge about labor-saving tools

Farm tools

Lack of financing (capital) for buying equipment Feed processing Lack of improved feed processing equipment and knowledge NTFP processing Lack of improved NTFP processing equipment and knowledge

Lack of connection to the national power grid

Farm machinery

Household electricity Irregulararity of electricity supply from micro-hydropower units

4.3 Deriving a research programme from the diagnostic results Problem diagnosis and solution design are intimately connected. The ability to solve a problem begins with the ability to define what the problem is. Often, a clear statement of a problem is all that is needed to suggest a solution. Some of the implied solutions in the above list of problems originated in the thinking of the researchers when confronted with the problems of the villagers, and others reflect existing interests or even on-going experiments of the villagers themselves. The power of the Farming Systems Research/Extension approach is that appropriate solutions emerge directly from the interaction of researchers and villagers, without a lot of formal analysis. In this respect, the present analysis is a kind of after-thought. Its usefulness is in

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refining the definition of problems and clarifying the thinking about solutions in preparation for a second round of diagnosis and design activity, which will be of greater depth. This is an iterative process which, if repeated over several annual cycles of experiementation with villagers will result in solutions that are genuinely relevant and adoptable by villagers. This cannot often be said about research products arrived at by top down procedures and simply extended to villagers without their participation in the design and testing process. An extension agency is still needed to help reach maximum scale in the spread of the innovations to a wider population of villagers within the recommendation domain, but it is villagers’ involvement in the development of solutions that makes the extension activity productive. Table 8 on the following pages presents the results of a series of research planning workshops that were held in Vientiane following the diagnostic fieldwork. Taking the diagnostic findings as a starting point, the members of the field team and the directors and staff of the different NAFRI Research Centers joined together to analyze the results, define the nature of the appropriate technological interventions, and identify the relevant research lines leading to the desired outcomes. Over 50 members of NAFRI were involved in this exercise. The results are shown in Table 8.

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Table 7. Analysis of problems, causes, opportunities for intervention and indicated research topics for Namo.

SYSTEMS (Na Mo)

PROBLEMS/CAUSES LOC. CODE

OPPORTUNITIES RESEARCH TOPICS ACTION/ PRIORITY

CROPPING UPLAND CROPPING

- Upland rice (hai) - weeds =>after young fallow - pests ( rats, birds, wild pigs, ants) - white grubs ? (wet years) - poor burn => if early rains - drought (some years - lodging (strong wind)

1,4,5 1-4 2,4,5 2,5 5 5

- improved fallows - cover crops ? - row planting ? - resistant/tolerant varieties (white

grub, drought, lodging)

- improved fallow - study effect of herbicides & salt

spray (soil, weeds) - test productive promising local

varieties - search for suitable cover crops in

rice

Rl Rm Rm D, Rl

- Upland corn (hai sali)

- lodging (tall plants, good soil) - weevils damage seed - harvest during rain - pests (rats, pigs, squirrel, "men")

5 5 5 5

- short varieties - improved seed storage - plough upland fields - intercrop corn with annual market

crops

- variety trial (short varieties) - study upland ploughing practice

(effects on soil, w Farm Mach) - test improved seed storage

methods

Rm Rs Rm

1

- Upland cash crops

- study potential of sugarcane & rubber cultivation

Rl

LOWLAND CROPPING

- lack of lowland rice fields - (=>lack funds for making paddies,

buying buffaloes)

1-5 2,4,5

- Lowland wet season rice

- lack knowledge on suitable varieties - rice gall midge - pests (grasshoppers, caterpillars,

rats, wild pigs, birds) - lack experience in lowland rice

cultivation - late transplanting (irregular rains) - lodging - lack of water

1,2,4,5 1,2,4,5 1,2,4,5 2,4,5 2,4,5 2,4,5 1,2,5

- select suitable varieties (gall midge tolerant)

- improved land preparation - melon after rice provides residual

fertilizer for wet season rice

- variety trial - rice – dry season crop rotation (or

observation trial) (income, labour, yield, soil)

- improved lowland rice management

Rs/Rm Rs Rm

1 1

- Lowland dry season rice

- poor germination seed (low temperatures)

- lack knowledge on dry season rice cropping (seed bed, transplanting)

- pests (grasshoppers, white caterpillar, ants, rats)

- harvest during rain

1 1 1 1

- select suitable cold tolerant varieties

- adjust cropping pattern (early planting of dry season rice after early/ medium duration wet season rice)

- trial cold tolerant varieties (incl early planting)

- improved dry season rice management

Rs Rs

1 3

SYSTEMS PROBLEMS LOC. OPPORTUNITIES RESEARCH TOPICS ACTION/

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(Namo) CODE PRIORITY Irrigated dry season water melon

- high investments required/bank credit comes late

- no permanent cropping possible on same land

- use of a lot of chemicals - market quite limited ?

1 1 1 1

- use of animal manure to reduce expenses

- use botanical pesticides instead of chemical pesticides

- study cause of yield reduction under permanent cropping (soil study)

- do cost – benefit analysis - animal manure – fertiliser trial

[incl herding/raising livestock in stable overnight?]

- study option of lower chemical input cultivation ?

Rs Rs Rs D, Rm

1 1 2

FRUIT - local varieties (small fruits) - traditional low input management

(planting, cultural practices) - fencing out livestock - limited markets - pests (rats,…) - cool fog =>mortality some species

1,5 1,5 3,4,5 1,5 1,5 5

- improved varieties and planting material

- improved planting and cultural methods

- improved livestock management

- market studies (soc-ec) - trial or study of suitable cold

tolerant species & varieties (e.g. japanese pear, peach, plum: intercrop with annuals =. agro-forestry system)

Rm

LIVESTOCK Large livestock (catttle, buffalo, goats)

- mortality due to Entero toxemia - mortality due to Thuktea which enter

cattle when they drink from the river - internal and external parasites - lack of vaccination - lack of interest in vaccination - limited availability of veterinary

services - slack village regulations concerning

livestock management

1 2,4 1,2,3,4,5 1 1,3,4 1,2,3,4,5 1,2,3,4,5

- make use of indigenous knowledge of herbal veterinary medicine

- local availability of species - year round supply of grass - support timely availability of

vaccination services

- village training - group livestock management - study sources of diseases - trial of growing feed for cattle

Small livestock (poultry and pigs)

- mortality due to diseases - lack of vaccination - disease spreads easily from feeding

areas near the road - lack of investment captial - lack of feed

1,2,3,4,5 1,2,3,4,5 1,2,3,4,5 1,2,3,4,5 1,4,5

- support timely availability of vaccination services

- control and manage the movement of animals

- vaccine quality trial and control - training of villagers in use of

vaccines

AQUACULTURE Fish ponds - limited area

- lack of skill - lack of fingerlings - limit of fresh water - low temperature, long winter

1,2,3,4,5 ABC

- Potential to import fingerlings from China

- Potential for development of small pons

- develop fish ponds E

Frog culture - lack of technology 2,5 BC - Area is available Frog culture on farm - feed - production system

Rm

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SYSTEMS (Namo)

PROBLEMS LOC. CODE

OPPORTUNITIES RESEARCH TOPICS ACTION/ PRIORITY

FORESTRY NTFPs - Bitter bamboo

- area and yield of bamboo reduced - clear upland field in bamboo area - illegal harvesting (shoots & stems) - bitter bamboo occurs in diverse soils

and forests - fluctuating price - different shoot size, early, mid or

late season) - transport is complicated as areas are

far from road

1-5 4,5 4

- area can be expanded on its own in natural environment

- upland area closeby can be converted into bitter bamboo

- village regulations on NTFP use (harvesting, marketing, conservation areas) can be improved

- regeneration and improved management of bitter bamboo areas (domesticate and expand in natural forest)

- cost-benefit comparison of upland rice, annual cash crops & bamboo

- support the set up of user groups (harvest and market groups)

- study processing & storage

Cardamom - limited area, dispersed - grows only in specific areas =>

limited opportunity for expansion - diseases (white fungus ?) - irregular yield (high rainfall => no

yield) - irregular price - low quality due to premature

harvesting

- - potential for domestication (enrichment planting in natural forest)

- start having experience in domestication (variety, management => from China)

- village regulations (harvesting, management)

- relevant documentation from other projects (IUCN-NTFP)

- exchanging market information

- study cultivation & plant propagation in diverse forests (deng, green, Kuang Tung)

- yield trials of diverse varieties at different environments (soil, climate)

- study disease control & prevention methods

- study how to improve quality of produce

"Tout tiang" – "peuak meuak "– "nang noiw"

- grows dispersed in natural forest - limited interest of farmers

- good market and price - study cultivation and propagation methods in diverse forests

LAND USE - difficulties and conflicts still exist related to village land use

- not all stages of land allocation have been completed

- limited lowland paddy land - area is steep and mountainous - low yields of upland crops in steep

lands - young fallow; lot of erosion

1-5 - support the completion of all stages of land allocation

- study how upland crop yields can be improved by various means

- study a variety of permanent, sustainable and low input land uses (for sloping land)

SOCIOECONOMICS Land use planning - land disputes between pangthong 5 - potential for improvement of - study of impact of land use D, 1

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and kokfat villages (paddy, upland fields, ntfp collection area)

- shortage of cultivatable land for relocated people of kokfat village

- natao, phouxang, keola and mixay villages have conflict over ntfp collection area

- some lands between villages remain unassigned

- unfinished negotiations and land use planning/land allocation process

5 2,3 2,3 2,3,5

livelihoods by completion of land use planning, negotiation, and land allocation processes

- potential for better understanding

of land use planning/allocation needs and processes through research (policy & planning implications)

planning/land allocation and of ways to improve the process (jointly with Land Management Component)

Rs

Marketing - unstable prices - difficulty in finding buyers - dependence on traders coming to the

villages (passive marketing)

1,2,3,4,5 - potential for improved land use and livelihoods through improved marketing

Marketing studies - existing market channels - market information system - local and export market potentials - direct sales potential - initial priority focus on: bitter

bamboo, watermelon, ginger, sesame, legumes, sweet corn

Rs

Transportation and storage

- difficulty in transporting products - loss of quality through long storage - lack of local vehicles

1,2,3,4,5 - potential for improved livelihoods through improved access to transportation and improved storage

- Study of potential for improved storage and transportation

Rs

Labor productivity - lack of labor and low labor productivity (especially for weeding and harvesting)

- lack of labor-saving tools

1,2,3,4,5 - potential for spread of labor-saving tools from one innovator to other villagers

- potential for introduction of new labor-saving tools

- study of existing labor-saving tool usage (returns to labor, etc.)

- research and development of labor-saving tools (with Farm Machinery)

Rm

Household enterprises

- technical problems with existing household enterprises (e.g. silk worms)

- lack of capital to invest in household enterprises

1 1,2,3,4,5

- potential to increase income by improving and diversifying household enterprises

- study of the productivity of existing enterprises and identification of opportunities for improvement or introduction of new enterprises

Rs D E

FARM MACHINERY CROPPING Land preparation and management

- lack of labor and low labor-productivity

- lack of improved tools and knowledge about labor saving tools

- lack of financing for buying equipment

1,2,3,4,5 1,2,3,4,5 1,2,3,4,5

- some villages have land with potential for use of small-scale farm machinery

- village savings banks could be developed

- high market potential because close to Chinese border

- research and development of upland seeding equipment (in cooperation with professional school)

- research and development of upland weeding equipment

Rs D

1

LIVESTOCK Feed processing

- lack of improved feed processing equipment and knowledge

1,2,3,4,5

- potential for planting forage crops for processing (corn, cassava, etc.)

- research and development of small-scale processing machinery

Rs 1

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(corn sheller, cassava cutter, pedal thresher, etc.)

FORESTRY Processing of NTFPs (cardamom, red mushroom)

- lack of improved NTFP processing equipment and knowledge

- difficulty in drying because harvested in rainy season

1,2,3,4,5

- grows naturally - existing market access would

support increased processing and sales

- study of existing drying equipment,

- development of improved drying equipment

Rs Rm

1

HOUSEHOLD ECONOMY Electricity generation

- lack of connection to the national power grid

- irregularity of electricity supply from micro- hydropower systems

1,2,3,4,5

- the potential of hydropower from streams could be developed

- micro-hydro systems could be made more efficient

- research and development of improved small scale electrical generating systems

Rm & Rl

Location, ethnic group & action codes:

Na Mo Villages 1. Namo Nua 2. Mixay 3. Phusang 4. Pangdou 5. Pangthong

Ethnic Groups A. Lao Loum B. Lao Theung C. Lao Sung

Action Codes Rs – Research short term Rm – Research medium term Rl – Research long term D – Design interventions E – Extension trials

In this way the transition is made from village specific problems to relevant research of a broader nature within the workplans of discipline oriented research centers. This is the long list of potential research topics. Obviously, it is too much to take up all at once. Subsequent planning discussions, including another round of consultation with villagers to elicit their priorities, narrowed the list down to a smaller subset of research activities to be taken up in the first year of on-farm research with farmers (see next section).

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5. Research Follow-Up The diagnostic fieldwork conducted by the full multidisciplinary team was the basis for a series of research planning workshops at NAFRI, which defined the current workplan of the LSUARP supported work at NAFRI (see LSUARP 2002a for a complete description of this planning process). Subsequently, detailed plans were made for individual research topics and the research was initiated. The research follow-up thus far has been of two types: on-farm experiments and in-depth diagnostic studies. The following brief section is intended simply put a listing of the main follow-up activities on record. For full descriptions the reader is referred to the publications cites below.

5.1 On-farm experiments Table 8. Assessment of villagers’ interest in proposed on-farm research trial topics.

Production Subsystem

On-Farm Research Trial Topics

Interest Group Size (households)

Addresssing Problems in Household Supply

Subsystems for: Irrigated lowland rice Lowland rice trial (variety x

management) 11 Food

Fish in ponds Integrated pond – fish species 5 Food, Cash Animal feed – large livestock 25 Animal feed – small livestock 19

Crop-livestock

Agricultural processing tools – animal feed

22

Savings/investment Cash, Food

Agroforestry Study and test improved NTFP drying oven

1 Cash

NTFP Cardamom variety x spacing trial 4 Cash Table 9. On-farm research trials initiated in Namo District in 2002.

Responsible Centre

Addresssing Problems in Household Supply

Subsystems for: Lowland rice yield trial – variety – high management (2 trials)

ARC Lowland rice

Lowland rice yield trial – variety – local management (3 trials)

ARC

Food

Fish ponds-small livestock

Integrated fish pond-pig system – stocking rate, mixture of fish

LARReC Cash, Food

Large livestock Cattle raising feed (treated straw + cassava leaves)

LRC Savings/investment, Cash, Food

NTFP Cardamom variety x spacing trial (3 varieties)

FRC Cash

See LSUARP 2002b, 2003c for more complete descriptions.

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5.2 In-depth diagnostic studies Land use planning The first indication of problems came to light in the form of reports of land disputes in several research villages. A joint team of staff and advisors from the Socioeconomics and Land Management Components returned to look deeper into the issues, define the problems more precisely, and identify specific questions for further research (LSUAFRP 2002c, 2002d). Subsequent to this, the Land Management Component has been following up with a series of research visits and reports (LSUAFRP 2002d, 2003). The basic finding is that the government strategy of relocation and consolidation of villages in order to contain shifting cultivation, reduce opium production and facilitate provision of services to larger village units located near roads is being implemented at district level without proper use of quantitative planning methods. The resulting difficulties include inadequate land for sustainable agriculture, inequities between villagers in access to agricultural land, and social incompatibility between different population groups within the merged villages. Market research Market constraints were identified in all the villages and market research has been accorded a correspondingly high priority in the work programme of the Socioeonomics Unit of NAFRI (SEU 2002). The main finding of direct usefulness to the Farming Systems Component thus far is that there is a big market opportunity for out-of-season vegetables in the Luang Phabang market and also, to a lesser extent, in Oudomxay. “Out-of-season” in the northern Lao context means the time of the year when the river gardens are not in production (i.e. during the rainy season when the river gardens are inundated). During this time vegetables for the tourist and urban markets must be imported from Vientiane or Thailand. River garden production is the main traditional form of vegetable growing for the market and very little upland vegetable gardening has developed, but clearly it is the destiny of market gardening to expand beyond the traditional riverine niche into upland vegetable gardens using more intensive growing techniques. It is clear that there is a ready market waiting to absorb increased off-season vegetable production. Farmer response is only in its beginning stages. Village finance institutions Lack of adequate finance for agricultural development was diagnosed as a constraint in most villages. The Socioeconomics Unit has begun a comparative study of existing experience with village finance innovations in Lao PDR as part of an effort to build capacity for a possible action research undertaking to experiment with ways of addressing this problem in the research villages. The scope of the study includes rice banks, livestock banks, and village savings-and-loan associations. The study is still at an early stage.

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References LSUAFRP. 2002a. Interim report on the diagnostic fieldwork and research planning process

for Phonsay and Namo districts. Socioeconomics and Farming Systems Components. Lao-Swedish Upland Agricultural and Forestry Research Programme. NAFRI. Vientiane.

LSUAFRP. 2002b. Report on village research planning in Phonsay and Nam Mo districts and follow-up. Farming Systems and Forestry Research Components. Lao-Swedish Upland Agricultural and Forestry Research Programme. NAFRI. Vientiane.

LSUAFRP. 2002c. Back to the office report on the field trip to Phonsay and Namo, June 6-13, 2002. Socioeconomics Component. Lao-Swedish Upland Agricultural and Forestry Research Programme. NAFRI. Vientiane.

LSUAFRP. 2002d. Research report on land use planning and socio economic issues in Phonesay and Nam Mo districts. Land Management Component. Lao-Swedish Upland Agricultural and Forestry Research Programme. NAFRI. Vientiane.

Farming Systems and Forestry Research Components. Lao-Swedish Upland Agricultural and Forestry Research Programme. NAFRI. Vientiane.

Raintree, John B. and Katherine Warner. 1986. Agroforestry pathways for the intensification of shifting cultivation. Agroforestry Systems 4(1):39-54.

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Annex 1. Village-by-village listing of problems/causes and opportunities diagnosed by the disciplinary teams in Namo

Namo Nua Discipline System Subsystem Problems/causes and Opportunities Cropping Upland cropping Upland rice (hai) Weeds after short fallow Pests – rats, birds, wild pigs, ants Lowland cropping Lowland rice Lack of lowland rice land (naa) Irrigated wet season rice Lack of knowledge on suitable varieties Pests – rice gall midge . Pests - grasshoppers, caterpillars, rats, wild pigs, birds Lack of water Irrigated dry season rice Poor seed germination due to low temperatures Lack of knowledge on dry season rice cropping (seed bed, transplanting) Pests - grasshoppers, white caterpillars, ants, rats Harvest during rain causes poor storage quality (rice) Irrigated dry season melon High investment requirement, bank credit comes too late No permanent cropping possible on the same land Use of a lot of chemicals Market quite limited? Fruit Fruit Local varieties have small fruits Traditional low inputs management (planting, cultural practices) Limited markets Pests - rats . . . Livestock Large livestock Large livestock Mortality due to entero toxemia Internal and external parasites Lack of vaccination Lack of interest in vaccination Limited availability of veterinary services Slack village regulations concerning livestock management Small livestock Small livestock (poultry & pigs) Mortality due to diseases

36

Lack of vaccination Disease spreads easily to animals feeding near the road Lack of investment capital for small livestock Lack of feed for small livestock

Fisheries Aquaculture Fish ponds Limited area for fish ponds Lack of skill in fish pond making Lack of fingerlings Limited fresh water Low temperature, long winter limits fish pond production Forestry NTFPs Bitter bamboo Area and yield of bamboo reduced due to upland field clearing Land use Land use Difficulties and conflicts still exist over village land use Not all stages of land allocation have been completed Lowland paddy land is limited Area is steep and mountainous Low yields of upland crops in steep lands High erosion in short fallow land Socioeconomics Marketing Marketing Unstable prices Difficulty in finding buyers Dependence on traders coming to the villagers (passive marketing) Transportation and storage Difficulty in transporting products Loss of quality through long storage Lack of local vehicles Labor Labor productivity Lack of labor and low labor productivity (weeding and harvesting) Lack of labor-saving tools Livelihood Household enterprises Technical problems with existing household enterprises (e.g. silk) Lack of capital to invest in household enterprises Farm Machinery Farm tools Farm tools Lack of labor and low labor productivity Lack of improved tools and knoweldge about labor-saving tools Lack of financing (capital) for buying equipment Livestock tools Feed processing Lack of improved feed processing equipment and knowledge Forestry tools NTFP processing Lack of improved NTFP processing equipment and knowledge Household Electricity generation Lack of connection to the national power grid Irregulararity of electricity supply from micro-hydropower units

37

Mixay Discipline System Subsystem Problems/causes Cropping Upland cropping Upland rice (hai) Pests - rats, birds, wild pigs, ants Pests - white grubs? in wet years Poor burn if early rains (more weeds, low fertility) Lowland cropping Lowland rice Lack of lowland rice land (naa) Lack of investment capital for making paddies, buying buffalo Lowland wet season rice Lack of knowledge on suitable varieties Pests - rice gall midge Pests - grasshoppers, caterpillars, rats, wild pigs, birds Lack of experience with lowland rice cultivation Late transplanting due to irregular rains Lodging or rice Livestock Large livestock Large livestock Mortality due to Thuktea which enter cattle when drinking from river Internal and external parasites Limited availability of veterinary services Slack village regulations concerning livestock management Small livestock Small livestock (poultry & pigs) Mortality due to diseases Lack of vaccination Disease spreads easily to animals feeding near the road Lack of investment capital for small livestock Fisheries Aquaculture Fish ponds Limited area for fish ponds Lack of skill in fish pond making Lack of fingerlings Limited fresh water Low temperature, long winter limits fish pond production Frog culture Lack of technology of frog culture Lack of technology of frog culture Forestry NTFPs Bitter bamboo Area and yield of bamboo reduced due to upland field clearing Land use Land use Difficulties and conflicts still exist over village land use Not all stages of land allocation have been completed Lowland paddy land is limited

38

Area is steep and mountainous Low yields of upland crops in steep lands High erosion in short fallow land Socioeconomics Land use planning Land use planning Mixay, Phusang, Natao & Keola villages have conflict over NTFP area Some lands between villages remain unassigned Unfinished negotiations and land use planning/land allocation process Marketing Marketing Unstable prices Difficulty in finding buyers Dependence on traders coming to the villagers (passive marketing) Marketing Transportation and storage Difficulty in transporting products Loss of quality through long storage Lack of local vehicles Labor Labor productivity Lack of labor and low labor productivity (weeding and harvesting) Lack of labor-saving tools Livelihood Household enterprises Lack of capital to invest in household enterprises Farm Machinery Farm tools Farm tools Lack of labor and low labor productivity Lack of improved tools and knoweldge about labor-saving tools Lack of financing (capital) for buying equipment Livestock tools Feed processing Lack of improved feed processing equipment and knowledge Forestry tools NTFP processing Lack of improved NTFP processing equipment and knowledge Household Electricity generation Lack of connection to the national power grid Irregularity of electricity supply from micro-hydropower units

39

Phousang Discipline System Subsystem Problems/causes Cropping Upland cropping Upland rice (hai) Pests - rats, birds, wild pigs, ants Lowland cropping Lowland rice Lack of lowland rice land (naa) Fruit Fruit Difficulty fencing out livestock Livestock Large livestock Large livestock Internal and external parasites Lack of interest in vaccination Limited availability of veterinary services Slack village regulations concerning livestock management Small livestock Small livestock (poultry & pigs) Mortality due to diseases Lack of vaccination Disease spreads easily to animals feeding near the road Lack of investment capital for small livestock Fisheries Aquaculture Fish ponds Limited area for fish ponds Lack of skill in fish pond making Lack of fingerlings Limited fresh water Low temperature, long winter limits fish pond production Forestry NTFPs Bitter bamboo Area and yield of bamboo reduced due to upland field clearing Land use Land use Difficulties and conflicts still exist over village land use Not all stages of land allocation have been completed Lowland paddy land is limited Area is steep and mountainous Low yields of upland crops in steep lands High erosion in short fallow land Socioeconomics Land use planning Land use planning Mixay, Phusang, Natao & Keola villages have conflict over NTFP area Some lands between villages remain unassigned Unfinished negotiations and land use planning/land allocation process Marketing Marketing Unstable prices Difficulty in finding buyers Dependence on traders coming to the villagers (passive marketing) Marketing Transportation and storage Difficulty in transporting products

40

Loss of quality through long storage Lack of local vehicles Labor Labor productivity Lack of labor and low labor productivity (weeding and harvesting) Lack of labor-saving tools Livelihood Household enterprises Lack of capital to invest in household enterprises Farm Machinery Farm tools Farm tools Lack of labor and low labor productivity Lack of improved tools and knoweldge about labor-saving tools Lack of financing (capital) for buying equipment Livestock tools Feed processing Lack of improved feed processing equipment and knowledge Forestry tools NTFP processing Lack of improved NTFP processing equipment and knowledge Household Electricity generation Lack of connection to the national power grid Irregulararity of electricity supply from micro-hydropower units Namo, Pang Dou Discipline System Subsystem Problems/causes Cropping Upland cropping Upland rice (hai) Weeds after short fallow Pests - rats, birds, wild pigs, ants Pests - white grubs? in wet years Poor burn if early rains (more weeds, low fertility) Lowland cropping Lowland rice Lack of lowland rice land (naa) Lack of investment capital for making paddies, buying buffalo Lowland wet season rice Lack of knowledge on suitable varieties Pests - rice gall midge Pests - grasshoppers, caterpillars, rats, wild pigs, birds Lack of experience with lowland rice cultivation Late transplanting due to irregular rains Lodging or rice Lack of water Fruit Fruit Difficulty fencing out livestock Livestock Large livestock Large livestock Mortality due to Thuktea which enter cattle when drinking from river Internal and external parasites Lack of interest in vaccination

41

Limited availability of veterinary services Slack village regulations concerning livestock management Small livestock Small livestock (poultry & pigs) Mortality due to diseases Lack of vaccination Disease spreads easily to animals feeding near the road Lack of investment capital for small livestock Lack of feed for small livestock Fisheries Aquaculture Fish ponds Limited area for fish ponds Lack of skill in fish pond making Lack of fingerlings Limited fresh water Low temperature, long winter limits fish pond production Forestry NTFPs Bitter bamboo Area and yield of bamboo reduced due to upland field clearing Illegal harvesting of shoots & stems Transport is difficult as bamboo areas are far from the road Land use Land use Difficulties and conflicts still exist over village land use Not all stages of land allocation have been completed Lowland paddy land is limited Area is steep and mountainous Low yields of upland crops in steep lands High erosion in short fallow land Socioeconomics Marketing Marketing Unstable prices Difficulty in finding buyers Dependence on traders coming to the villagers (passive marketing) Marketing Transportation and storage Difficulty in transporting products Loss of quality through long storage Lack of local vehicles Labor Labor productivity Lack of labor and low labor productivity (weeding and harvesting) Labor Labor productivity Lack of labor-saving tools Livelihood Household enterprises Lack of capital to invest in household enterprises Farm Machinery Farm tools Farm tools Lack of labor and low labor productivity Lack of improved tools and knoweldge about labor-saving tools Lack of financing (capital) for buying equipment Livestock tools Feed processing Lack of improved feed processing equipment and knowledge Forestry tools NTFP processing Lack of improved NTFP processing equipment and knowledge

42

Household Electricity generation Lack of connection to the national power grid Irregulararity of electricity supply from micro-hydropower units Pangthong Discipline System Subsystem Problems/causes Cropping Upland cropping Upland rice (hai) Weeds after short fallow Pests - white grubs? in wet years Drought in some years Lodging of rice due to strong wind Upland cropping Upland corn (hai sali) Lodging (tall plants, good soil) Pests - wevils damage seed Harvest during rain causes poor storage quality (corn) Pests - rates, pigs, squirrel, 'people' Lowland cropping Lowland rice Lack of lowland rice land (naa) Lack of investment capital for making paddies, buying buffalo Lowland cropping Lowland wet season rice Lack of knowledge on suitable varieties Pests - rice gall midge Pests - grasshoppers, caterpillars, rats, wild pigs, birds Lack of experience with lowland rice cultivation Late transplanting due to irregular rains Lodging or rice Lack of water Fruit Fruit Local varieties have small fruits Traditional low inputs management (planting, cultural practices) Difficulty fencing out livestock Limited markets Pests - rats . . . Mortality of some species due to cool fog (chilling damage) Livestock Large livestock Large livestock Internal and external parasites Limited availability of veterinary services

43

Slack village regulations concerning livestock management Small livestock Small livestock (poultry & pigs) Mortality due to diseases Lack of vaccination Disease spreads easily to animals feeding near the road Lack of investment capital for small livestock Lack of feed for small livestock Fisheries Aquaculture Fish ponds Limited area for fish ponds Lack of skill in fish pond making Lack of fingerlings Limited fresh water Low temperature, long winter limits fish pond production Frog culture Lack of technology of frog culture Forestry NTFPs Bitter bamboo Area and yield of bamboo reduced due to upland field clearing Illegal harvesting of shoots & stems Land use Land use Difficulties and conflicts still exist over village land use Not all stages of land allocation have been completed Lowland paddy land is limited Area is steep and mountainous Low yields of upland crops in steep lands High erosion in short fallow land Socioeconomics Land use planning Land use planning Land disputes between Pangthong & Kokfat (paddy, hai, NTFP area) Shortage of cultivable land for relocated people of Kokfat Unfinished negotiations and land use planning/land allocation process Marketing Marketing Unstable prices Difficulty in finding buyers Dependence on traders coming to the villagers (passive marketing) Transportation and storage Difficulty in transporting products Loss of quality through long storage Lack of local vehicles Labor Labor productivity Lack of labor and low labor productivity (weeding and harvesting) Lack of labor-saving tools Livelihood Household enterprises Lack of capital to invest in household enterprises Farm Machinery Farm tools Farm tools Lack of labor and low labor productivity Lack of improved tools and knowledge about labor-saving tools Lack of financing (capital) for buying equipment

44

Livestock tools Feed processing Lack of improved feed processing equipment and knowledge Forestry tools NTFP processing Lack of improved NTFP processing equipment and knowledge Household Electricity generation Lack of connection to the national power grid Irregularity of electricity supply from micro-hydropower units