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Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation SDCSwiss Cooperation Office for the Mekong Region, Vientiane

Sixteen Lao Agrobiodiversity Products

SWG ARD June 23, 2015 Dr Liliane Ortega

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Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation SDCSwiss Cooperation Office for the Mekong Region, Vientiane

to provide data and key facts,

to present lessons from experiences

and make recommendations for pro-poor and sustainable use

…in one double page (factsheet) for each product

Sixteen Lao Agrobiodiversity Products

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Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation SDCSwiss Cooperation Office for the Mekong Region, Vientiane

Every factsheet includes:(1) production types: product key features, key definitions and how it is produced, (2) current production: relative importance, how much and where it is produced, (3) production, consumption and sales: income generation aspects illustrated by examples,(4) processing: key points only, to understand the major steps involved and the possibility or not for added value within Laos, quality issues

Sixteen Lao Agrobiodiversity Products

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Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation SDCSwiss Cooperation Office for the Mekong Region, Vientiane

(5) marketing: trading channels, market demands, grading systems, domestic and foreign demands, (6) constraints: main bottlenecks for sustainable exploitation and pro-poor development,(7) potentials: opportunities for further development,(8) summary: concluding remarks and main recommendations. This summary aims at offering the readers, especially the decision-makers, with a very brief section providing key insights and key recommendations for each product.

Sixteen Lao Agrobiodiversity Products

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Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation SDCSwiss Cooperation Office for the Mekong Region, Vientiane

Sixteen Lao Agrobiodiversity Products

(1) Statistics. There is a general need for more accurate statistics on production, domestic and export trade for most agro-biodiversity products, in order to establish sustainable quotas for collectors, buyers and exporters ,

(2) Informal/illegal trade (traders operating without license) is negatively affecting the sustainability and the quality of several products while also weakening the position of legal traders,

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Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation SDCSwiss Cooperation Office for the Mekong Region, Vientiane

(3) Organizational aspects. To develop sustainable value chains for ABPs it is important to also support the establishment of appropriate farmers’ organizations (production groups, marketing groups, etc.),

Sixteen Lao Agrobiodiversity Products

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Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation SDCSwiss Cooperation Office for the Mekong Region, Vientiane

(4) Climate change and Agro-biodiversity. There is a growing consensus for perceiving agro-biodiversity as an important asset for mitigating climate change.

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Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation SDCSwiss Cooperation Office for the Mekong Region, Vientiane

Two authors

Anonh Khamhoung and Dirk Van Gansberghe

Thirteen institutions/projects have been consulted and have provided many valuable data

WWF Laos, GRET, CCL, Helvetas, Agroforex, NAFRI, NUOL PAFO XKH, PAFO HPN, NUDP, UNDP/FAO ABP and TABI

Will be published in English and Lao

Sixteen Lao Agrobiodiversity Products

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Thank you