Abstract
Traditional lifestyles of lowland rice farmers of the southern provinces of Lao People’s Democratic Republic are rapidly changing, due to two important trends. Firstly, there is a push towards modernization and commercialization of farming. Secondly, though farmers still focus on rice farming as a key activity, there is an increasing move towards diversification of livelihoods. The changes have seen the uptake of non-rice crops, livestock husbandry and forest and river utilization; as well as non-farming activities. This has influenced gender relations, impacting household agricultural production decisions and amplified transitional trends. To explore the processes, we analyzed data from a study of innovation adoption amongst rice farmers in southern Lao PDR. The study revealed nuances of gender-based differences in the priorities and attitudes towards farming and off-farm activities, as well as differences in behaviour related to the adoption of new practices. Women were more focused on non-farming practices and considered engaging in the modern, non-traditional, economy more so than men. Women also reported experiencing greater challenges when engaging and trading in the agricultural marketplace. The study supports the importance of taking a gendered approach to understanding the inherent complexities within agrarian change.
Highlights
The Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) is a sparsely populated nation in Southeast Asia where agricultural production usually occurs on farms that are less than two hectares, and where populations have tended to be spread out in a way that gives farmers limited access to processing industries and markets [1,2]
Local government officers recruited villagers to meet in the common facility in each village and as participation was voluntary, we cannot account for the dynamics that resulted in variations in gender participation
In the context of agrarian transition amongst smallholder farmers in Southern Lao PDR, this paper explores differences in how women and men embrace new technologies, their preferred farming strategies and their capacity to engage with modern markets
Summary
The Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) is a sparsely populated nation in Southeast Asia where agricultural production usually occurs on farms that are less than two hectares, and where populations have tended to be spread out in a way that gives farmers limited access to processing industries and markets [1,2]. Lao farmers are contributing to a bigger picture of regional agrarian transition [12] In this context, to improve rural livelihoods, the Lao government is trying to shift farmers to commercial agricultural production through interconnected strategies that aim to (a) guarantee food security, (b) deliver comparative and competitive agricultural commodities, (c) expand clean, safe and sustainable agriculture, and (d) deliver a modernized, resilient and productive agricultural economy that contributes substantially to the national economy [13]. International aid organizations are helping with the agrarian transition that is aimed for by the Government of Laos [14,15,16,17,18]
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