The future of agriculture in Lao People’s Democratic Republic: Green growth and food security for all
Resilient and diverse crops, science-based domestic food production and enhanced livelihoods in disaster-prone areas can help achieve food security in the country, workshop participants concluded.
From 28 to 30 May in Vangvieng, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations in Lao People's Democratic Republic and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry with the support of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) co-hosted a participatory climate foresight workshop to chart new pathways for agriculture in the country. About 40 participants from the government, academia, non-governmental organisations, farmer associations, the private sector, and youth organizations worked together to find concrete ways to transform the Laotian agrifood systems. But first, they aimed to set the guiding vision and understand how current and future agrifood systems and climate change trends can affect agriculture in Lao People's Democratic Republic.
Addressing food security challenges in Lao People's Democratic Republic
Climate change poses substantial risks to the quality and quantity of yields for smallholder farmers who are the majority of the 70 percent of the population employed in agriculture. Projected increases in extreme rainfall, leading to floods and landslides, as well as severe agricultural droughts threaten crops and livestock throughout the food systems. Lao PDR faces the threat of rising widespread food insecurity and deteriorating livelihoods for smallholder farmers and rural people.
Dr. Phommy Inthichack, Deputy Director General of the Department of Planning and Cooperation of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry emphasized the critical link between climate-resilient agriculture and food security. He said: "Our Agriculture Development Strategy to 2025 and Vision to 2030 aims to ensure food security through sustainable agriculture that contributes to national economic growth, industrialization and modernization.”
Paving the way for future-proof climate investments that can help provide nutritious and affordable food, the participants identified key drivers of change and developed project ideas with transformative potential for more efficient, resilient and sustainable agriculture. Most participants selected climate change as the most impactful driver of agrifood systems transformation, followed by population dynamics and urbanization, cross-country interdependencies and food prices. All these drivers can have a direct impact on Lao PDR’s food security.
Financing Lao PDR's agriculture green growth ambitions
Participants at the workshop acknowledged that ensuring food security demands a multifaceted strategy. They identified key areas for action, including enhancing farmers' access to finance, promoting green resources and technologies, developing resilient infrastructure, and investing in agricultural research and innovation. This comprehensive approach, they concluded, is essential for Lao PDR to simultaneously achieve food security and green growth in the face of climate change.
Through fruitful discussions and the application of foresight tools, participants identified priority project ideas that aim to enhance food systems resilience to climate change, reduce food insecurity through domestic production, improve disaster preparedness in vulnerable areas, and ensure food security through research on adaptation strategies.
Climate finance for food security
Developing the project ideas further is a resource-intensive and lengthy process. Ms. Kyung-Mee Kim, FAO Representative to Lao People's Democratic Republic, highlighted FAO's commitment to supporting Lao PDR in developing tailored adaptation and mitigation actions for agriculture. She said: "We need to anticipate and prepare for future challenges ensuring that our policies and strategies are resilient and adaptive to climate change." She added that agriculture urgently needs scaled-up climate finance projects to realise its unique potential to tackle the climate crisis and achieve food security for all.
This is the third country workshop of the Agriculture Sector Readiness for enhanced climate finance and implementation of Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture priorities in Southeast Asia project in Lao PDR. FAO and partners such as the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment will build upon existing investment planning processes to enhance climate action in agriculture.
About the project
The Agriculture Sector Readiness for enhanced climate finance and implementation of Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture priorities in Southeast Asia project aims to enhance the capacity of six countries in Southeast Asia to develop national climate finance investment programmes and projects linked to adaptation and mitigation priorities for the agriculture sectors as well as exchange knowledge and learning to promote innovative mechanisms for public and private sector climate finance at national and regional levels. The project is implemented by FAO with the support of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) – the world’s largest dedicated fund for climate action – together with six participating countries: Cambodia, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Viet Nam.
For more information about the project in Cambodia, please contact [email protected]. To learn about the partnership between FAO and GCF, please visit the website.