Envisioning sustainable agricultural futures in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic: A national participatory workshop on climate actions and resilience

FAO;

Envisioning sustainable agricultural futures in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic: A national participatory workshop on climate actions and resilience

Workshop report, Vang Vieng, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, 28-30 May 2024

Year of publication 2025

Place of publication Bangkok, Thailand ;

Pages 35 p.

Author FAO;

Publisher FAO ;

Product type Document

Full item page

Synopsis (short abstract) An agrifood transformation in the Lao People's Democratic Republic requires strategic interventions to build climate resilience while supporting rural livelihoods and national food security. This workshop report examines outcomes from a country consultation that mapped pathways toward an innovative, low-emission agricultural future capable of delivering sustainable growth for all. The collaborative assessment identified four critical forces shaping agricultural development: evolving climate patterns, shifting demographics and urban migration, regional economic interdependencies, and volatile commodity markets. Responding to these dynamics, stakeholders developed targeted investment proposals focusing on diversified cropping systems using indigenous varieties, strengthened domestic food production coupled with water security measures, community-based disaster risk management for vulnerable populations, and research-driven adaptation technologies. The proposed interventions emphasize local knowledge integration, scientific innovation, and community empowerment as foundations for sustainable agricultural development. Part of the Agriculture Sector Readiness project for enhanced climate finance in Southeast Asia, this workshop report illustrates how participatory planning processes can generate locally relevant solutions that align with broader climate finance mechanisms and regional cooperation frameworks.

Language English

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In the Lao People's Democratic Republic, 80 percent of the rural population are subsistence farmers. Stronger agriculture systems are essential for the country to attain food and nutrition security, reduce poverty, and achieve the government’s vision of a developing country of upper-middle income with innovative, green and sustainable economic growth by 2030. The country’s agriculture sector is exposed to multiple risks: climatic, biological and economic. Flood, drought and storm are the most prevalent natural hazards, and are expected to become more intense and more frequent with climate change. Vulnerability of agriculture systems in the country is driven by a number of factors, including geographically scattered production due to the country’s topography and weak linkages to urban populations and regional markets; and a heavy dependency of the population on agriculture and natural resources as a source of employment, income and food, among others. Against this background, the "Building Climate-Resilient and Eco-Friendly Agriculture Systems and Livelihoods in Lao People's Democratic Republic" project or Climate REAL project, sought to enhance resilience to climate-related disasters and environmental sustainability of agriculture systems and livelihoods in three districts of Attapeu Province, one of the most marginalized and remote provinces in the country.
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Terminal evaluation of the project "Strengthening agroclimatic monitoring and information systems to improve adaptation to climate change and food security in the Lao People's Democratic Republic"
Project code: GCP/LAO/021/LDF - GEF ID 5462
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The project focused on technical innovation to strengthen efforts to build climate resilience of smallholder producers. The project, beyond original expectations, generated an agroecological zoning modelling tool (pyAEZ) of global relevance. The project achieved many of its outputs, some of which went beyond the indicators and exceeded targets for coverage. Securing co-financing (and engaging other actors in complementary efforts) was very successful. The network of weather stations was improved along with establishing a laboratory for calibration of the sensors of the automatic weather station (AWS), and the Lao Climate Service for Agriculture (LaCSA), a decision-making tool developed by the project to provide agrometeorological advisories and early warnings. The project was found to have made a significant contribution to strengthening agroclimatic monitoring and information systems to improve adaptation to climate change and food security.
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Strengthening agroclimatic monitoring and information systems to improve adaptation to climate change and food security in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic
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No results found.

The project was implemented from 26 May 2017 to 30 June 2022. It aimed to i) enhance the monitoring, analsyis, communication and use of agrometerological data and information at national and provincial levels for decision-making in agriculture and food security; and ii) improve the monitoring and analsysis of agriculture production systems by strengthening the Land Resources Information Management System (LRIMS) and agroecological zoning (AEZ) for agricutltural policies and climate change adaptation. The evaluation covered the project's full five-years and aimed to provide evidence of the most productive egroclimatic approaches for the country.