Gender and Development

Lao People's Democratic Republic

Decentralized Irrigation Development and Management Sector Project, 2000

Background to Project

Lao PDR is a predominantly agrarian country with agriculture providing a livelihood for 95 percent of the rural population. Rice is the major crop, with the irrigated areas on the flood plains of the Mekong River and its major tributaries producing most of the marketable rice. With low population density (21 persons per square kilometer), few landless people and a relatively even land distribution pattern, the Lao PDR does not face critical land scarcity or allocation problems in contrast to many developing countries. Yet, poverty levels in this small mountainous country remain a cause for alarm. Sixty-five percent of the population lives in poverty, with two thirds of these families living in severe poverty. Chronic malnutrition is also pervasive, with poor and very poor rural families particularly vulnerable to malnutrition. Inefficient farming practices, such as lack of timely and adequate inputs like fertilizer and seed, are partly to blame. Annual rice production is also affected by the weather and other environmental factors. Crop losses due to droughts, floods and rat infestations are common.

For these reasons, food security continues to be a primary concern of rural households. Rural families in midland and upland areas may be without rice for three to five months a year. In the project area, it is estimated that between seven to 31 percent of households suffer from rice shortages for two to three months in a year. During these months, rural women rely heavily on forest and fish products to provide food and cash income. On average, women obtain as much as 30 percent of the family's diet and household needs from foraging and, in some areas, up to 70 percent of their protein diet from fishing.

At present most of the irrigation systems in the lowlands along the Mekong River are pump irrigation schemes. Many have existed for over five years but have been poorly maintained and hence do not function efficiently. Most water user groups do not have sufficient technical skill to maintain their pump systems. They also lack extension services needed to adopt cropping patterns to achieve higher incomes. Increasing agricultural productivity through irrigation-related improvements will not only address issues of food shortages, but also allow farmers to market surplus food and plan additional high-value cash crops.

Project Design

The overall goal of the project is to increase agricultural output and reduce poverty by improving the operation and maintenance of irrigation systems in project areas along the Mekong River. Expected outcomes of the project are 10 percent increase in irrigated land; 10 to 15 percent increase in cropping intensity; 50 and 65 percent increase in the wet and dry season paddy yields, respectively, and adoption of high-value crops on about 20 percent of the cropped area.

The project is comprised of three components:

• Rehabilitation of existing or investment in new irrigation infrastructure across the proposed 56 irrigation systems in the project.
• Development of water user associations.
• Expansion of agricultural extension services.

The formation and capacity building of water user associations is critical to the success of the project; the sustainability of decentralized irrigation management depends entirely on the capacity of water user associations to operate and maintain rehabilitated or new irrigation systems. Membership will vary but will comprise between 50 to 100 families. The focus of this component is on education and training of water users to assume ownership of the operation, maintenance and cost recovery of the irrigation system. The water user associations will also facilitate better delivery of agriculture extension services to farmers.

Training and other extension services will also be offered in order to increase crop yields, improve the quality of agricultural produce, and introduce higher value crops. The project aims to develop an effective extension system, which develops farmers' capacity to identify constraints, try new technologies, and make decisions for ongoing improvements in production. This can include specialist services for technology transfer for more suitable cropping patterns, adoption of improved seed, more efficient use of fertilize and better water utilization. Training will include improved materials and field study tours for farmers to familiarize themselves with best practices. Financial management support will also be given to farmers via their water user groups, including access to credit and advice on ways to respond to market developments that can enhance farm incomes.

Gender Inclusive Design

The project design includes a number of assurances to ensure that the project's beneficiaries are predominantly poor farmers in the village and that female farmers are not disadvantaged by the project. In particular, the project describes strategies and targets to ensure women are actively included as beneficiaries and members of water user associations:

Women's Membership

• Water user associations must register female farmers as members.
• A specific assurance of the loan agreement states that at least 20 percent of office holders and committee members within water user associations must be women.

Women's Access to Training and Extension Services

• The project also specifies targets to ensure that female farmers have access to technology transfer and derive the maximum benefit from the extension process.
• As part of the loan agreement, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry must ensure that at least 20 percent of extension workers are female, and at least two staff members in each district agriculture and forestry service office are women.
• In addition, the Lao PDR Women's Union is involved in preparing gender sensitization training materials for provincial and district level agriculture and forestry officials on institutional mechanisms to enhance women's participation in water user associations.

Policy Dialogue on Land Title

ADB is engaged in an ongoing process of policy dialogue with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Department of Irrigation on this issues of land ownership and water rights. Registration of land and land ownership are critical to the effective functioning of water users associations as well as to women's long term economic status.

Registration of land ownership and the issuing of land titles are proceeding slowly in Lao-PDR. On an informal basis, land tax certificates issued in the name of the household head are regarded as establishing ownership. Given that men are generally regarded as household heads, men may thus be seen as the owner of these land holdings. This is misleading and without legal basis as land tax certificates do not convey ownership rights. While a process for issuing land title has started, it will take some time before titles to agricultural land are issued. In the meantime, care has to be exercised to ensure that women's ownership of land, water rights and involvement in water user groups are not overlooked because they do not hold land title or land tax certificates.

For this reason:

• ADB is pressing for the issuing of land certificates, which could be used later as the basis of land title claims.
• In terms of the project, such land certificates will be issued to farmers - male and female - at the subproject site in the initial stages of implementation.