Table of Contents Issue No.05 August 2016 Agro-biodiversity and agro-ecosystems for upland development The landscape of HouaPhanh Province in northern Lao is characterised by sloping mountains and small valleys, and the livelihood of villagers faces various difficulties, especially cultivating wet-rice fields where these fields are higher than the water level of rivers. Supplementary irrigation is required to produce good yields, but it some arwas it is not possible to construct an irrigation weir upstream of the paddy fields. Therefore, villagers have devised a traditional method to take water from the river to irrigate their fields - the bamboo and wood water-wheels called “Lok” or “Gong Phat Nam” . A study was recently undertaken into the many water wheels built and managed by villagers along the Nam Xam River, to supply water to wet-rice fields in villages in Him and Meuang Vene Village Clusters, of XamNeua District of Houaphanh Province. Currently, there are 18 water-wheels in Him Village, 10 in Piane village, 4 in Natang village and 9 in Khong Village, and these are used by 99 households. The water lifting capacity of one medium size water-wheel is 188 liters per minute, and the area irrigated is 68 hectares. The construction of these water-wheels starts in the dry sea- son, March, when the villagers prepare materials, equipment and tools such as the wood, bamboo, natural roping, knives, hammers, etc. They then carefully construct or assemble the water-wheel, following an ancient method, section by section. The wheel msut be finished and placed on the side of the river at the start of June, the beginning of the wet season, when land is prepared for cultivation. A crucial part of this system is the temporary dam/weir built across the river every year. This dam is bascially a row of wooden 3-legged stays, and palm leaves to check the water and cause the water to be directed towards the water wheel, on the side of the river. This causes a higher velocity/energy of the water directly under the water wheel, which is enough to turn the wheel and its many bamboo containers full of water. This low-level, wood/palmleaf weir across the river also re- duces the flow in the stream and increase’s water level a Wood/bamboo water Wheel- Indigenous Knowledge for Irrigation Irrigation by wood/bamboo Water-wheel .............................p1 Broom Making and Marketing.................................p2 Seedling Production Nurseries......p4-5 Workshop Report: Controlling Maize herbcide use......................p3 Luang Prabang Mushroom poster...p6 little, and actually improves the habitat of the aquatic animals, thus a good fishing spot for villagers. The number and variety of aquatic animals in the wet rice fields is also increased, as juvenile aquatic animals are scooped-up by the water-wheels’ bamboo containers, from the river, and transported to the fields. The water supplied is usefull not only for supplementary irrigation of the wet-rice fields, but also for vegetable produc- tion, and for raising aquatic animals such the fish, frog, crab etc… for both household consumption and for selling to earn incomes But this indigenous water wheel does have some limitations, including (a) it cannot function during the dry season as the river flow is too low, and (b) it can be easily damaged by high water flow from heavy rain, and thus has to be re-built. Thus, the villagers’ main concern is the significant time, and wood and bamboo resources required to build the wheels and weirs. This study, measuring and documenting these indigenous water wheels, was supported by The Agro-Biodiversity Initiative (TABI). The objective of TABI support is not only to record, for posterity, the local and ABD-based irrigation sys- tem, but also to explore with villagers how to use their skill and indigenous knowledge to enhance the sustainability of use local natural resources for improving their household liveli- hood, and labor saving. Resource person: Vanxay Bounthavongkham, PAFO : 020 2234 6446 : [email protected]TABI UPdate Issue No.5 1 TABI_UPdate_5_2_Eng.indd 1 26-Sep-16 11:02:56 AM
Issue No.05August 2016Agro-biodiversity and agro-ecosystems for upland development
The landscape of HouaPhanh Province in northern Lao is characterised by sloping mountains and small valleys, and the livelihood of villagers faces various diffi culties, especially cultivating wet-rice fi elds where these fi elds are higher than the water level of rivers. Supplementary irrigation is required to produce good yields, but it some arwas it is not possible to construct an irrigation weir upstream of the paddy fi elds. Therefore, villagers have devised a traditional method to take water from the river to irrigate their fi elds - the bamboo and wood water-wheels called “Lok” or “Gong Phat Nam”. A study was recently undertaken into the many water wheels built and managed by villagers along the Nam Xam River, to supply water to wet-rice fi elds in villages in Him and Meuang Vene Village Clusters, of XamNeua District of Houaphanh Province.Currently, there are 18 water-wheels in Him Village, 10 in Piane village, 4 in Natang village and 9 in Khong Village, and these are used by 99 households. The water lifting capacity of one medium size water-wheel is 188 liters per minute, and the area irrigated is 68 hectares.The construction of these water-wheels starts in the dry sea-son, March, when the villagers prepare materials, equipment and tools such as the wood, bamboo, natural roping, knives, hammers, etc. They then carefully construct or assemble the water-wheel, following an ancient method, section by section. The wheel msut be fi nished and placed on the side of the river at the start of June, the beginning of the wet season, when land is prepared for cultivation. A crucial part of this system is the temporary dam/weir built across the river every year. This dam is bascially a row of wooden 3-legged stays, and palm leaves to check the water and cause the water to be directed towards the water wheel, on the side of the river. This causes a higher velocity/energy of the water directly under the water wheel, which is enough to turn the wheel and its many bamboo containers full of water. This low-level, wood/palmleaf weir across the river also re-duces the fl ow in the stream and increase’s water level a
TABITABITABITABITABITABITABITABITABITABITABITABITABITABITABITABITABITABITABITABITABITABITABITABITABITABITABITABITABITABITABITABITABIUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateUPdateWood/bamboo water Wheel- Indigenous Knowledge for Irrigation
Irrigation by wood/bamboo Water-wheel .............................p1
Broom Making and Marketing.................................p2
little, and actually improves the habitat of the aquatic animals, thus a good fi shing spot for villagers. The number and variety of aquatic animals in the wet rice fi elds is also increased, as juvenile aquatic animals are scooped-up by the water-wheels’ bamboo containers, from the river, and transported to the fi elds. The water supplied is usefull not only for supplementary irrigation of the wet-rice fi elds, but also for vegetable produc-tion, and for raising aquatic animals such the fi sh, frog, crab etc… for both household consumption and for selling to earn incomes But this indigenous water wheel does have some limitations, including (a) it cannot function during the dry season as the river fl ow is too low, and (b) it can be easily damaged by high water fl ow from heavy rain, and thus has to be re-built. Thus, the villagers’ main concern is the signifi cant time, and wood and bamboo resources required to build the wheels and weirs. This study, measuring and documenting these indigenous
water wheels, was supported by The Agro-Biodiversity Initiative (TABI). The objective of TABI support is not only to record, for posterity, the local and ABD-based irrigation sys-tem, but also to explore with villagers how to use their skill and indigenous knowledge to enhance the sustainability of use local natural resources for improving their household liveli-hood, and labor saving.
Farmers Training on “Broom Stick” Production for Better Quality and Increasing Value Add
TABI Newsletter Issue No.5, August 2016
The Louang Prabang Provincial Agriculture and Forestry Offi ce (LPB PAFO), The Agriculture and Forestry Offi ce of Phonesai District (PS DAFO), the Natural Resource and Environment Offi ce of Xieng Ngeun District (XG DoNRE) and The Agro-Biodiversity Initiative (TABI) have together provided support to and organized train-ing courses aimed at increasing the skills and ability of broom stick producers to make new broom sticks with high quality and added value in the target villages
of Phonesai and Xieng Ngeun districts. The training courses were organized into two sessions in March and April 2016:(i) Session 1 was organized between 14 to 18 March 2016 in Phak Hok Nursery and TSC campus with a total of 24 participants, whereof 15 women (63%), repre-senting fi ve target villages of Sopchia Cluster Village of Phonesai District. Four technical specialists or trainers were hired from Ton Pheung District of Bo Keo province.(ii) Session 2 took place the 26th to 29th of April 2016, targeting a total of 26 (16 women) villagers from fi ve villages in Kio Ya Village cluster of Xieng Ngeun District. Transfer of technical knowledge of high quality broom sticks were carried out by four skilled individuals who had been selected as farmer to farmer trainers from the fi rst training session in Phak Hok Nursery and TSC. The two training courses were also well facilitated by the Development Environment Community Association (DECA). Prominent leaders from the two districts also took active part, facilitating, supervising and following up the train-ing courses, especially Mr. Sichanh Latsami, governor of Phonesai District and Dr. Somvang Douang Avane, DG-Cabinet of Xieng Ngeun District.The training courses for were mainly aimed at promoting
local indigenous knowledge to increase skills and abili-ties of broom stick producers and also to provide sup-port for sustainable use of local natural resources and NTFP by adding value to the product and by developing connections to local and nationwide markets. The two training sessions resulted in improved broom making techniques which enabled the farmers to sell the brooms to local markets as well as to Vientiane Capital City markets. The broom grass and raw materi-als, were collected both from natural habitats and from domestic gardens.1 kg of broom grass can be used to produce 3 broom sticks, that can sell for about 10,000 Kip/stick (total 30,000 Kip). After the training sessions, the Phonesai farmers could produce and sell 384 sticks to a total amount of 3,840,000 kip. This is to be compared to the revenue made from selling the natural broom grass (without processing) that only amounts to 6,000 Kip/kg.This activity has enhanced villagers awareness and will-ingness to manage, protect and sustainably use their local NTFP resources.The Agro-Biodiversity Initiative (TABI), not only provided fi nancial supports to these training courses to 50 farm-ers, including 31 females (62.5%) in 10 target villages of the two districts mentioned above. TABI also provided funds to broom stick producers in 5 target villages of Phonesai District worth 2,000,000 kip per village, total amount of 10,000,000 kip, to establish revolving funds. In order to strengthen the management of those funds, TABI also organized training specifi cally for fund man-agement and then transferred full responsibility to the revolving fund management committees established in each village.
Resource person: Soutsada Chanthasiri, Team Leader, DECA
On 11th of March 2016, the Xieng Khouang Provincial Agriculture and Forestry Offi ce (XKH PAFO), with tech-nical and fi nancial support from the Agro-Biodiversity Initiative (TABI) and LURAS, organized a workshop to exchange lessons learnt and experiences regard-ing soil degradation and using chemicals in commod-ity maize plantations. The workshop took place in the big conference hall of Kham District, and was chaired by Mr. Khamsi Chanthavongsi, DG of XKH PAFO, co-chaired by Mr. Pheng Souvanthong, TABI CU/SO and DG Cabinet of Kham District. Senior participants in-cluded the Governor from Nonghet District, the Vice Governor from Phoukoud district, representatives from MAF (MoPC and DALaM), PAFOs of Houaphanh and Xieng Khouang, Nonghet, Phoukodt and Kham DAFOs and DONRES, XKH PoNRE, CTAs and TAs from TABI, EFICAS and LURAS as well as 15 village heads from 15 villages (5 villages per district). In total 50 participants were present, including 4 women. The objective of the workshop was to consult and dis-cussion in order to seek resolution to the big problems of (i) soil degradation and (ii) health and environmen-tal problems due to the overuse of chemicals (some of which are illegal) in commercial maize plantations. Specifi c information on maize production was report-ed by the 3 DAFOs, and the presentations on efforts made towards appropriate management of chemical use were made by representatives from Xieng Khouang and Houaphanh PAFOs.
In 2014, TABI initially provided support to study chemi-cal utilization in maize plantations in 3 Districts of Phoukoud, Kham and Nong Het. According to the fi nd-ings, the areas where chemicals and pesticides are used covers about 85% in Nong Het district, 60%, in Kham, and 35% in Phoukoud. Then, TABI provided technical and fi nancial support to Xieng Khouang, Houaphanh and then Luang Prabang Provinces to conduct subProjects for raising awareness, and promoting reduced and good practice in relation to chemical usage, via the mass media and village meetings. In addition, sample plots were established for controlling soil degradation as well as organizing village to village exchanges on lessons
learnt. Following this support, the utilization of chemical pesticide and herbicide in target villages was reduced with 26% at the end of 2015, and in 4 villages of Kham District it was declared that the use of all chemical her-bicides and pesticides had been eliminated.
In the afternoon, workshop participants were divided into groups to discuss problems, diffi culties, challenges and resolutions for future implementation. After group work presentations, the plenary session was opened for comments and ideas from all 3 districts governors and TA from TABI, LURAS and EFICAS, who all provided valuable comments for future cooperation and activities.
The workshop was closed by Mr. Pheng Souvanthong, TABI CU/SO and Director of MAF National Agro-Biodiversity Program, who congratulated all partners and projects, especially to TABI which had provided technical and fi nancial support for implementation as mentioned. Mr. Souvanthong also noted the importance of this workshop for seeking directions on how to take action on soil improvement, the management and con-trol of chemical use on maize plantations in accord-ance with provincial and district strategies, as well as the importance of supporting local ethnic villagers for improving their livelihood and household economies in order to exit poverty. In conclusion, he recommended to all participants to conduct the following urgent activi-ties: (1) to systematically conduct pFALUPAM and to implement FLUMZ in all villages; (2) to use all grass and vegetable residue for fertilization of the soil; (3) to de-velop specifi c regulation manuals and guidelines, and to broadly disseminate such documents, and (4) to strictly manage and control chemical imports and utilization.
TABI_UPdate_5_2_Eng.indd 3 26-Sep-16 11:03:00 AM
Seedlings in PAFO Plant Nursery, Xieng Khouang, March 2016
Type/name scientific name Date planted Nr.Filling in plastic bag
Tree Nursery and Seedlings Production, Xieng Khouang Province
The Forestry Section of the Agriculture and Forestry Offi ce of Xieng Khouang Province established a plant nursery many years ago, and each year it pro-duces seedlings for supplying to the organizations, companies and villagers for planting. However, seedlings pro-duction has not been suffi cient to meet
demands of society and the community because of limited of funds provided by government.
Therefore, starting in 2015, the Agro-Biodiversity Initiative (TABI) has provided technical and fi nancial supports to the the Forestry Section of PAFO in amount of 39,520,000 Kip, which has been used to buy various species of tree seeds, nursery’s tools and equipments as well as to pay for labour forces for maintaining this plant nursery. This enabled the production of about 58,861 seedlings of a range of tree types, from native forest trees, industrial trees, ornamental trees and fruit tress. Unfortunatelly, the end of 2015 and beginning of 2016 saw the occurrence of very heavy frosts in Xieng Khouang Province, which caused many tree seedlings death.
In order to continue the production of seedling suffi cient meet to villagers and social organization demands, at the start of 2016 TABI again provided fi nance supports amounting to 43,021,000 Kip to the Forestry Section of PAFO to procure more equipments, buy more seeds and planting materials and for the operation of nursery. As on March 2016, an additional 12,496 seedlings were procured, and the aim is to produce a total of 53,475 seedlings by June 2016.
Tree Nusery and Seedlings Production, Ponsai Districts, Luangprabang Province
In Phak Hok Village of Phonesai District of Louang Prabang Province, TABI has provided technical and fi nan-cial support to Phonesai District Agriculture and Forestry Offi ce to establish and develop a plant nursery of size 15m x 45m, for producing seedlings of fruit tree, fl ower-ing tree, industrial tree, hardwood tree, fruit trees and other local natural species. The objective is to provide these trees to villagers to plant the tree species in their home garden for household consumption and selling for making money, to plant the hardwood tree for their long term income generation, and to plant other natural tree species for watershed protection and forest fi re control lines in many areas of 20 villages of 4 cluster villages in Phonesai District.
During the past year, 2015, the nursery has supplied almost 19,936 seedlings to villagers for planting, and
also provide thousands’ of coffee seedling to the partnership of TABI in Xieng Khouang Province. For this 2016 year, the nursery again produced about 30,501 seedlings totally in order to be ready for supplying to plant during the tree planting date of 1/6/16 totally about 20,544 seedlings that consisted of:1. Flowering tree species 628 seedlings.2. Fruit tree species 3,320 seedlings.3. Industrial tree species (coffee) 8,260 seedlings.4. Hard wood tree species 2,006 seedlings.5. Natural tree species for protection of watershed purpose 6,330 seedlings.Most of these seedlings were provided to Phonesai District Agriculture and Forestry Offi ce to distribute to local village com-munities and organizations to plant during the 1/6/16 planting day, plus other plantings.
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TABI Newsletter Issue No.5, August 2016
ຄວາມຫຼາກຫຼາຍຂອງເຫັດທຳມະຊາດໃນເມືອງຈອມເພັດ, ແຂວງຫຼວງພະບາງThe diversity of wild mushroom in Chomphet district, Luang Prabang province
