Lao PDR

Distinguishing features of this landlocked country are low population density, high ethnic diversity, poor infrastructure and geographical dispersion of the people. Agriculture employs over 80% of the population and forms 53% of GDP, but at least one-third of the population remain below the poverty line. There has been economic recovery since 1999, with majorexports of garments, timber and wood products, gold re-exports, hydroelectric power and coffee. Despite overall national self-sufficiency, seasonal rice shortages occur regularly in several provinces.

Food security is still central to agricultural development in Laos. Lao PDR will be one of four countries involved in a new initiative on safeguarding food security in rice-based farming systems. Research will aim to increase the productivity of rice-based farming systems, together with fostering cooperation with CGIAR centres to fast-track development of new crop arieties with advanced informatics and biotechnology. Some enabling research on underpinning institutional and policy rrangements affecting rice-based farming systems will also be commissioned. These themes will be underpinned by apacity building and training.

Rainfed rice farming in Lao PDR is impacted by the effects of seasonal climate variability and, in the long term, of climate change. Flows along the Mekong River and its tributaries will also be affected by climate change and by impacts of planned dam construction. The impacts of climate change will amplify the current food security crisis. ACIAR's focus during 2009-10 will be to emphasise adaptation to climate change at the farm scale, with a drive for more efficient use of soil and water resources particularly in the lower Mekong Basin, South Asia and Australia.

Lao PDR has tended to develop two agricultural economies in recent years, the lowland areas along the Mekong River, where access to markets in Thailand has stimulated agricultural development; and the uplands, where many farmers still practice 'slash-and-burn' shifting cultivation. The Lao PDR Government is expanding irrigation in lowland areas and working to find alternatives to slashand-burn cultivation in the uplands. With increasing population pressures in the uplands, fallow periods have become unsustainably short. In both upland and lowland areas, diversification of production and greater integration of both agricultural systems with markets remain priorities. However, in the areas of comparative advantage, market opportunities and research needs, the two economies generally differ.

Lowland agriculture is remarkably rice-centric-nationally about 2.3 million tonnes are produced, compared with 120,000 tonnes of maize, 150,000 tonnes of sweetpotato and much smaller amounts of legume crops. Fish accounts for 40% of dietary protein intake. Upland systems are often more diverse than lowland ones but are poorly connected to markets, with rice being produced mainly for household consumption. Some simple approaches can reduce dependence on slash-and-burn agriculture in these regions. Examples include the introduction of better cutand-carry forage production systems and the use of incomegenerating livestock, forestry and agroforestry. Forestry provided up to one-third of export revenue in the 1990s, but the government has since moved to limit harvesting of natural forests, leading to falls in income from log extraction. Lao PDR remains a heavily forested country by Asian standards and long-term conservation of this natural resource is critical. More so than other Asian countries, the harvesting of non-timber forest products for food, fibre and medicine forms an important income and livelihood source for many rural households in Lao PDR.

Smallholder livestock are important in the Lao economy, on average providing half the annual household income of smallholders. ACIAR research will assist in the control of infectious diseases across and within countries (transboundary diseases) in partnership with regional disease control initiatives such as the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) South-East Asian Foot-and-Mouth Disease Control Program. Important priorities will be improvement to risk assessment of disease transmission that occurs with trading and movement of livestock, improvement to disease surveillance systems, and application of any advances to disease control programs. There are opportunities to improve village-based and small-scale commercial enterprises by limiting important constraints, one of which is disease.

In 2006, in collaboration with the National Agricultural and Forestry Research Institute, ACIAR implemented a small grants scheme to enable Lao researchers to develop skills in the design and management of agricultural research projects.