.:: Lao Knowledge Base on Conservation Agriculture ::.
1- Approach
A global systemic approach
The systemic approach, designed to progressively transfer skills to the local authorities, research and development agencies and private operators, is organised around two principles:
- To develop a repeatable global solution to the constant need for information from all development practitioners, in order to improve and update in ‘real time’ the technological, methodological and organisational methodology to keep it in line with the evolving biophysical, socio-economic and political context, and with demand. Constant evaluation at each stage will allow real time adjustment of activities and reorientation of programmes, and so optimise the use of all resources.
- To develop an integrating approach that unites research, extension, training and all processes involved with creating a structure and taking policy and financial decisions from the very start of the project and throughout its cycle. This will require links with all actors in rural development: farmers, extension agents, trainers, researchers, the private and banking sectors, and political and financial decision makers.
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The solution lies in an integrating and iterative process based on components designed to fulfil activities of Diagnosis, Set-up & Trials, Training, Monitoring & Evaluation, Creating an enabling environment and Extension. Each participant will thus be somehow involved in every project activity. Such involvement is essential to the success of this global systemic solution. The single most important objective in each component is the constant safeguarding of the human, economic, cultural, technical and natural environment.
The farmer groups approach is used to facilitate regular technical support and exchange with families (creation of structures) concerning the production systems that will be developed. The approach must be flexible, evolving according to results and indicators, and able to structure and adapt groups of producers towards service activities (e.g. supply, credit, and collection).
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A farmer-group based approach... Featured
A holistic approach, based on a permanent link between research and development, has been implemented by the Lao National Agro-Ecology Programme (PRONAE – PCADR, NAFRI), the Rural Development Project of the four southern districts of Xayabury province (PASS – PCADR, LCG), and the Sector-based Programme on Agroecology (PROSA, MAF), in partnership with the department of agriculture and forestry of Xayabury and Xieng Khouang provinces.Five interdependent components describe this holistic approach: A first component is based on local knowledge and initial assessment to characterize biophysical conditions, farming systems and the socio-economic situation. A second component based on reference data acquisition (65 ha in Xayabury and Xieng Khouang) is implemented through demonstration fields. A broad range of options is developed and will allow farmers to adjust their systems in line with changing market demands (continual diversification and adjustment of system ...
Institutional tools for the promotion of Conservation A... Featured
The National Agroecology Programme (PRONAE) and the Southern Xayabury Application Point (PASS) of the Capitalization and Rural Development Support Programme (PCADR), have developed an approach in the provinces of Xayabury and Xieng Khouang that relies on direct‑sowing mulch-based cropping systems (DMC). This approach has provided relevant alternatives to traditional agricultural practices which can no longer ensure the foundations of sustainable agriculture. In view of the results obtained, be they socio-economic or environmental, the Council of Ministers asked the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) to promote these techniques throughout the country, and called for this approach to be included in university and school courses. It is in that context that the Sector-based Agroecology Programme (PROSA), whose main aim is to define and implement a national strategy for the dissemination of Conservation Agriculture based on agroecological techniques (DMC), operates. This strategy is based on i ...
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Direct Seeding Mulch-Based Cropping Systems – A Holis... Featured
Farming systems throughout the Lao PDR have changed drastically over the last 15 years due to a range of factors. In some areas where market forces are prevalent, shifting cultivation systems have given way to more conventional high-input agricultural systems. In other more remote areas, the traditional swidden system with long rotations has been put under pressure primarily due to modification of land access and increasing population pressure. In southern Xayabury in the Mekong corridor, where there is access to the Thai market, land preparation has become based on burning residues and ploughing on steep slopes. Because of the environmental and financial costs of land preparation, farmers are shifting to herbicides, which lead to chemical pollution, while crop residues and weed mulch are usually burned, thereby increasing mineral losses and erosion on bare soil. In mountainous areas such as Xieng Khouang Province, the rationale of shifting cultivation is collapsing as farmers use land for longer periods ...
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Principles of direct-seeding mulch-based cropping syste... Featured
This paper gives an overview of the holistic research approach implemented by NAFRI and CIRAD and the principles of direct seeding mulch-based cropping (DMC) systems. Conventional agriculture and intensification of shifting cultivation are now being questioned, as they seem unable to face the main challenges of food safety, soil and water conservation, environmental protection and cost reduction. A holistic approach has been developed and managed by farmers, researchers and extension agents, whose aim is to propose agro-ecological systems that are compatible with farmers’ strategies and conditions and which can be reproduced inexpensively on a large scale. Agro-ecology is the understanding of dynamics and functions of agro-ecosystems, including all physical, economical and human environments. Direct seeding mulch-based cropping (DMC) systems, replicating functions of forest ecosystem, are one of the components of agro-ecology strategy. The main principle of these systems is that the soil is no longer di ...
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