Building resilience to climate change in Laos
FAO provides disaster risk reduction and management training to Laotian men and women farmers.
Malaythip Viengmany is a smallholder fish farmer from the village of Kangphosay, in Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR). Like many in Kangphosay, her income and livelihood has been severely affected by recurring floods. FAO and the European Union partnered with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and Laotian Province authorities to provide disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM) training to Malaythip and other farmers, with the aim of increasing their resilience to disasters, broadening livelihood diversity, and exploring more resilient livelihood opportunities, particularly for women.
“Earlier when the floods came, there was no way to avoid the loss,” explains Malaythip. “One of the prevention options offered by the project, which we have adopted, is to place a high net fence around the fish pond so that during periods of flooding the fish were not swept away. Apart from this, the project also introduced some new techniques for raising fish,” she continued. “Thanks to the support from FAO project we are able to raise more fish and minimize the damage from the floods.”
Today, Malaythip and her family not only have sufficient fish for their own consumption, but they are also able to supplement their income by selling the production surplus.