Agrarian transition in lowland southern Laos: Implications for rural livelihoods

Abstract

Despite being a low-income, agriculture-based country with a subsistence orientation, Laos is in the early stages of a major economic transformation whereby rural households have been experiencing rapid change in their farming and livelihood systems. Some households have begun to engage in semi-commercial farming while others have adopted labour-oriented or migration-oriented livelihood strategies. This study explores livelihood strategies of rural households in lowland rice-based farming systems in southern Laos in relation to government policies for agricultural development and the agrarian transition occurring in Laos and the region. The analytical framework used for this study draws on farming systems economics, agrarian systems analysis, and rural livelihoods analysis. Data were obtained from six villages in the lowlands of Champasak Province in southern Laos through key informant interviews, village group discussions, household surveys, and household case studies. Survey and case study data were supplemented with project and historical agronomic trial results in order to construct model budgets for various input scenarios of rice production. To allow for the production and market risks facing farmers, the budgeting analysis was supplemented by the techniques of sensitivity analysis, threshold analysis, and risk analysis. The study shows that Lao farmers in areas such as the lowlands of Champasak are caught up in, and contributing to, a much larger regional process of agrarian transition. Despite the selective adoption of improved technologies, rice production in all the study villages was primarily a low-yield, subsistence-oriented activity, or at most a semi-commercial activity. Most farmers appeared to view rice production as a platform on which to construct a diversified livelihood strategy in which the use of family labour within and beyond the farm was the key element. An economic analysis of rainfed rice production suggests that, given current conditions, we are likely to continue to see the adoption of low-input, labour-efficient, and relatively stable rice production systems for most households, with small areas of high-input, commercially-oriented systems in favourable situations. Price fluctuations due to supply shocks and government responses have created a further disincentive to the intensification of rice production systems. With rice production providing a subsistence base, rural households in the study area were engaged in a range of other agricultural and resource-based activities, including cultivation of non-rice crops, livestock-raising, and forest- and river-utilisation. Water resources were extracted from streams, ponds, and groundwater, as well as irrigation systems. The diversification of cropping systems through cultivation of non-rice crops was one alternative for improving the productivity and profitability of farming systems and the productivity of water use in the irrigation areas. In all villages, off-farm and non-farm activities, particularly long-term migration of younger household members to neighbouring Thailand, have come to play a large role in household livelihood strategies. In some cases this is necessary to meet the household’s consumption requirements; in most, it is part of a diversified strategy in which rice farming still plays a significant role, though still largely for subsistence. The diversification of household livelihoods through wage migration has reduced farm labour availability and increased farm wages, further limiting the incentives for rice intensification. Research and extension efforts should recognise this diversity of production systems and household livelihood strategies. There remains a need to improve the productivity and stability of rice production as a subsistence-oriented activity to enhance the capacity of rural households to engage in both farm and livelihood diversification. The level and reliability of returns to household labour (rather than land) should be central to the assessment of new agricultural technologies and practices, as well as the evaluation of agricultural policies. While rainfed rice will likely retain its role as the subsistence base for some time, the main agricultural trajectory is towards activities that provide higher returns to the household’s labour and capital resources. Hence the clear trend is towards diversification away from both sole dependence on rice and sole dependence on farming – that is, a trajectory of farm and livelihood diversification.