The Lao Peoples’ Democratic Republic is highly susceptible to climate change and natural hazards, particularly flood and drought conditions which seriously affect the country’s agricultural production.

Among those worst affected are smallholder farmers in rural areas, like Malaythip Viengmany She lives in Kangphosay village, Savannakhet  Province, and a major part of her livelihood relies on raising fish in ponds.  Without any higher education, and caring for three children, Malaythip’s family’s survival is heavily dependent on the fish she produces and through other forms of subsistence agriculture that they can manage.

Malaythip’s family and her neighbours in Kangphosay village have benefitted from an FAO project that provided training on disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM) in agriculture, which was co-funded by FAO and the European Union. The interventions, endorsed by the government, were timely.

The village and its surrounding agricultural lands are located along the bank of a river and the area is prone to flooding. Since 1992, the villagers have experienced four major floods, the most recent in 2015 when 106 hectares of agricultural land around the village was flooded, damaging more than one third of the cropped land. 

Four years earlier, in 2011, the village lost all its crops during a major flood that persisted for three months. In fact, almost 400 hectares of farm land is potentially vulnerable to flood damage in any given year, and the water level can remain persistently high for many months.  Minor flooding occurs every year.

Thanks to the FAO training, Malaythip’s family has adopted various Good Practice Operations (GPOs) designed to prevent flood damage, including successfully adapting her approach to fish culture. She is now sharing that knowledge with others and the community as a whole is also diversifying into livestock.

“Earlier when the floods came, there was no way to avoid the loss. 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”, explained Malaythip.  “Thanks to the support from FAO project we are able to raise more fish and minimize the damage from the floods.”

Now Malaythip and her family members can have plenty of fish for their own consumption, and she sells surplus fish during events or festivals in the village and elsewhere.

Kangphosay villagers have pursued a range of activities to broaden their livelihood diversity, from growing multiple types of crops, to raising different types of livestock, and developing supplemental incomes. Additional activities, both farm and business-focused, have been pursued to limit the impacts of disasters, in particular the exploration of resilient livelihood opportunities for women, so that the whole community can remain engaged during times of disaster.

Residents have requested training to produce organic fertilizer which would increase their overall agricultural production and therefore boost livelihoods. Several farmers in the community have received soil improvement training as part of the GPO programme. The farmers, who were trained under the project, have shared these techniques with other farmers to spread the practice throughout the community.

Traditionally, women have had a strong agricultural role in such communities of Lao PDR, and that role should be enhanced. Increased inclusion of women in agricultural decision making and in training activities, as demonstrated by the successes of the GPO programme, only increases the effectiveness of the community’s agricultural system as a whole.

District Agricultural Officers periodically check in with communities to provide additional support and resources, which are taken up by the citizens and local leaders. In support of this goal, DRRM Plans have been most successful when local stakeholders take ownership of the process and organize periodic meetings to oversee the implementation of activities.

Many of these actions are well within the capacity of the community to execute by themselves, some actions would benefit from training and/or additional support from District and Province authorities, while other more significant actions are identified as potential areas for future efforts.

As an FAO project village, Kangphosay has ten participating households in the GPO programme, including flood tolerant rice, fish cultures, and organic fertilizer/soil improvement.  While currently implemented GPOs offer significant opportunities to reduce vulnerability in target areas, their selective implementation leaves great room for expansion.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) has taken a number of important steps to better address and mainstream DRRM into agriculture planning. With the support of FAO, MAF together with provincial authorities have developed a sector-specific Plan of Action (PoA) for Disaster Risk Reduction and Management in Agriculture to raise awareness, strengthen sectoral capabilities and to promote a pro-active approach to DRRM.