Case Studies of Rural Development and Clean Agriculture in Lao PDR

The study examines the kind of actors and resources that empower small-scale farmers to promote sustainable agriculture. It also analyzes the reasons given by farmers who changed their farming methods. In 2004, the Department of Agriculture launched a project for the Promoting Organic Farming and Marketing in Lao PDR (PROFIL). PROFIL tried to develop market opportunities for Lao’s organic products and supported the local organic farmers. I conducted field researches at Nonte village in Vientiane Capital twice in 2008. The researches indicated that “Clean Agriculture” is one of the new challenges for farmers. Thus, this research focuses on the observation of how local organic farmers adapt to a new method and cope with problems. Information as knowledge from community groups and external actors such as local institutions and experts might help villagers to have choices in terms of farming methods, which gave them positive choices in terms of health and an agricultural environment. Since the government has the recognition of comparative advantages of clean agriculture, farmers may have the opportunity to gain a large market of organic farm products if they can develop distribution channels. This study encourages the positive contributions of challenges of sustainable agriculture in Lao PDR.