A Mix of Information and Loans Provides Opportunities to Poor Farmers in Lao PDR
XIENGKHOUANG PROVINCE, LAO PDR (20 October 2003) - Phonsavan Atsathong stands in a crowded one-room schoolhouse. "When you are buying a pig, what should you look for?" he asks the gathering of men, women and children of Xiengkiao Village in Kham District, Xiengkhouang Province, Lao People's Democratic Republic.
After a brief silence Mr. Atsathong, a veterinarian and trainer for Handicap International, a nongovernment organization, begins to explain the basics of pig purchasing-sows should have a large udder to feed their young; swine should be healthy and active.
The information is basic. But for many farmers in remote Xiengkiao Village it's new, practical and could lead to a hefty profit- much-needed income that would help many families in the area overcome chronic shortages of rice that can last more than six months a year.
When the lecture is over, about 20 women, each clutching a wriggling chicken or duck, gather in the center of the village to learn how to vaccinate their birds.
The novelty of vaccination is evident in the whoops and laughs of a crowd of onlookers as each woman tries her hand at sticking her uncooperative fowl.
For 55-year-old Ms. Hom, it is a new experience. She has been raising chickens for years to supplement her food supply and income but has never vaccinated her animals. Several die each year, meaning a loss of investment and food, but Ms. Hom simply accepts the loss as normal.
She is not alone. Dr. Tienne Vannasouk, deputy director-general of the National Agriculture and Forestry Extension Service, says that despite the importance of livestock to many villagers' incomes and food security, most farmers are either unaware of the need to vaccinate their animals or doubt the medicine's effectiveness.
A farmer could sell one chicken and get enough money to buy vaccine for 100 birds, he says. But until they are convinced the vaccine will work, they will not make that investment.
Disease claims many livestock each year, says Mr. Meepiang, head of Xiengkiao Village, but most farmers do not provide preventive care for their animals. "When there is an outbreak we go to the district government for help," he says.
Changing that attitude is one of the goals of Mr. Atsathong's training and of a US$1 million grant to Lao PDR from the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction (JFPR), which is financed by the Government of Japan and administered by ADB.
The Community-Managed Livelihood Improvement Project targets more than 17,000 people in 36 poor villages and is linked to an ADB irrigation project in the same areas.
The grant is designed to provide people who lack land or own land that is difficult to irrigate with small loans, information and training in ways to increase their incomes such as livestock rearing, production of cash crops like chili, peanuts or garlic, fishpond expansion, and silk or cotton weaving.
Rice is the central crop in Kham District, where 85%-90% of the population depends on agriculture for their primary source of food and income, says Thongthep Keomany, head of the District Agriculture and Forestry Services Office. Unfortunately, only 2.5% of the mountainous district's total area of 2,334 square kilometers is workable paddy field.
The scarcity of land means many families are unable to produce enough rice to meet their basic needs. Many others are landless.
About 60% of the district's population relies on unsustainable slash-and-burn hillside farming, foraging in forests and collecting non-timber forest products to supplement their rice production and trade for consumer goods, says Mr. Keomany.
Barely able to make ends meet, villagers have little time to spend learning about new crop possibilities or farming techniques. And with very small cash incomes, their ability and willingness to invest in unproven ideas is limited.
To ensure the project meets practical needs and wins the support of villagers, each village, in cooperation with the NGOs implementing the project, is responsible for determining the income-generating opportunities it wants to pursue, the types of training and study tours it needs to meet its goals, and the timetable under which beneficiary families will receive loans from the project's Village Revolving Fund.
Boualay Chanthalangsy is heading Handicap International's work in the 11 participating villages in Kham District. He says when the project began villagers lacked the confidence to express their opinions and were suspicious of strangers.
"It seemed new to the villagers that they were able to be involved in the design of the project and that their participation was important," he says.
Veterinary training and cash crop production are the priorities in Tadlouang Village, where only five of 62 households own enough land to produce sufficient rice for their own consumption.
Peanuts are an important off-season crop that villagers have long planted on nearby hills. When Mr. Ha, the village head, traveled to Kasi District in Vientiane Province on a project-funded study tour he was surprised to learn that farmers there also plant peanuts in their paddy after the rice harvest, expanding their harvest and their income.
"It is not our tradition to plant other crops in our paddy after harvest," he says. "We have never done that before." This year they will -- and are looking forward to the extra income.
Back in Xiengkiao Village, new access to information and training is also bringing change. Ms. Hom is now planning to vaccinate all her chickens.
Her neighbor Mr. Bounhak is planning to vaccinate his pigs. He will also move his pigpen, which he learned from Mr. Atsathong is too close to the stream that runs behind his wood and bamboo home.
Mr. Bounhak will use half of the 500,000 kip ($50) he plans to borrow from the village revolving fund to buy two male pigs. If they stay healthy and grow as expected, he hopes to sell them for 1 million kip a few months later.
The project's 500,000 kip loans are small, but they play a crucial role in turning new information into practical benefits. "It is not the amount of money you give that is important," says Lam Ngeunh Phakaysone, the project's lead consultant. "It's the degree to which people change their thinking that will make the difference."
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