Asian Development Bank

JFPR 9062: Sustainable Agroforestry Systems of Livelihood Enhancement for Rural Poor
Lao Peoples Democratic Republic

Project Summary

Name of Counterpart (loan) Project(s)

Grant Type

Task Officer/ Department

Budget

Executing Agency

Implementing Agency(ies)

Project Implementation Unit consisting of:

• Provincial Government of Luangnamtha
  Lao People's Democratic Republic
  Contact Person: Mr. Singkham Phanthavong, Vice Governor
  Fax: 856 86 312 013


• Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA), Lao
  P.O. Box 5000
  Vientiane, Lao PDR
  Contact Person: Mr. Brendon Irvine, Director
  Tel: 856 21 215 276; Fax: 856 21 253 3007
  Email: adralaos@adralao.org (office); birvine@adralao.org (director)

Scope

Objectives

Grant Development Objective (GDO)

The development objective is to bring about socially, economically, environmentally and ecologically sustainable rural poverty throughout the Northern Provinces of Lao PDR commencing with the stabilization of land use in a typical pilot area comprising 9 impoverished ethnic minority communities.

Project Purpose

The JFPR grant would support:

• construction of on-farm infrastructure for the development of sustainable intensive interlinked agriculture and forestry landuse systems for enhancing farm productivity, improving rural livelihoods and laying a foundation for secure land tenure certification;
• the capacity and skills building of target communities to sustainably manage their sedentarized land holdings for increased productivity; and
• the strengthening of the institutional capacity of local government agencies, in collaboration with Community Based Organizations and private sector, to effectively deliver essential agriculture and forestry extension and regulation services.

Expected Outputs

This proposal is prepared as a complementary supporting component to the Social Action Plan (SAP) 2002 of ADB Loan 1989-LAO (SF).

Main Project Components and Activities

1. Agricultural land development for sedentarization and intensification:

1. Expansion and upgrading of small-scale irrigation systems for rice and other arable crops are planned as an important contribution to improving the productivity of local farming systems thereby reducing cultivation pressure on the fragile upland and highland ecosystems
2. Run-off capture irrigation and rain-fed terrace infrastructure - to adequately meet the rice needs of the projected population (at 2008) a further 71 hectares will need to be developed for run-off capture irrigation and 167 hectares for bunded rain-fed paddy fields. These areas are not commandable from stream diversion weirs but are on land of less than 5% slope.
2. Establishment of tree plantations, rehabilitation, and protection of local forests:

1. Community forestry - an area of land in each village will be zoned and developed for community forestry. The community will hold the land for each family to use for fuel wood and a permanent lumber supply for home building and repair.
2. Village production forestry - each household would be allocated up to 1.5 ha of land to grow timber-producing forest to sell for household income.
3. Dedicated plantations to provide income for community infrastructure maintenance - each community will be allocated an area of land for communal production of trees to finance community infrastructure. The dedicated plantations are designed to be harvested and sold to finance the maintenance and repair of communal infrastructure (irrigation systems, schools, clinics etc).
3. Skills enhancement for the productive management of upgraded agricultural and forest lands. Resident technicians would train, demonstrate and promote, to all beneficiaries, appropriate agronomic and silvicultural technologies to improve and maintain farm and forest productivity. In-village seed and seedling production would also be supported. To minimize post harvest losses, low cost, appropriate technology storage barn improvements would be promoted, accessible to all beneficiaries. For organized product storage, processing and marketing, village trading posts would be constructed and operationalized in strategic locations.
4. Project management, monitoring, auditing, evaluation and dissemination. This component will provide a project implementation unit (PIU) to be responsible for the day-to-day management of project implementation, working closely with local government counterparts and villages. The PIU would conduct quarterly monitoring, biannual audits, mid-term and final evaluations, and annual workshops to disseminate lessons learned.

Any other relevant Information

1. a Poverty Reduction and Cooperation Fund Project for $850,000 that would focus on the social sector (health, non formal education, enterprise-skills development, preparation of a gender action plan), natural resource management (sustainable wildlife and non-timber forest products resource management), and land tenure security issues (land capability assessment, zonation, allocation, and occupancy certification) for the same target area;
2. another NGO to finance rural income generating activities including fruit orchard development, non-timber forest project domestication, and livestock husbandry and aquaculture development; and
3. United Nations World Food Program to provide rice to be used as compensation for the labour input of local communities via food-food-work. Together they make up the Nam Ha Project. This is an important short term poverty alleviation measure as it compensates local communities for their labour input as they are developing land use systems that can provide longer term improved livelihood and food security.