Village Study Report - Nagoya...

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF)

LAO/89/029 and LAO/89/C03

SMALL SCALE IRRIGATION PROJECT IN OUDOMXAY AND LUANG NAMTHA

NAM KHA SCHEME

Village Study Report Phonsavang village and Donna village, Houn district, Oudomxay, Lao P.D.R.

“The Basic Rural Features and the Development Consciousness

of the Villagers in Oudomxay province, Lao P.D.R.”

YOKOYAMA, Satoshi Department of Geography,

Faculty of Liberal Arts, Saitama University, Japan

June 1996

UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report

CONTENTS Page

I. Introduction............................................................................................................................... 1

I-1. Purpose of research.................................................................................................... 1

I-2. Methodology................................................................................................................ 2

II. Geographical features of the study area.................................................................................. 4

II-1. Geographical location................................................................................................. 4

II-2. Natural conditions ....................................................................................................... 5

III. Historical and basic features of the study area........................................................................ 7

III-1. Historical changes and the background of settlement................................................ 7

III-2. Sawmill village “Hong Luai” ........................................................................................ 7

III-3. Size of the villages ..................................................................................................... 8

III-4. Village organisation.................................................................................................... 8

III-5. Religion...................................................................................................................... 9

IV. Land use and landscape ...................................................................................................... 11

IV-1. Land use ................................................................................................................. 11

IV-2. Landscape .............................................................................................................. 13

IV-3. Space perception of villagers .................................................................................. 15

V. Infrastructure......................................................................................................................... 19

V-1. Personal properties.................................................................................................. 19

V-2. Water supply............................................................................................................ 19

V-3. Electricity.................................................................................................................. 20

V-4. Educational facility ................................................................................................... 21

V-5. Medical..................................................................................................................... 21

V-6. Public facilities.......................................................................................................... 21

V-7. Communications....................................................................................................... 22

V-8. Market...................................................................................................................... 23

VI. Socio-economic activities...................................................................................................... 26

VI-1. Historical change of socio-economic activities......................................................... 26

VI-2. Cropping calendar................................................................................................... 28

VI-3. Farming activities .................................................................................................... 28

VI-4. Fishery .................................................................................................................... 37


VI-5. Weaving .................................................................................................................. 38

VI-6. Gathering forest production .................................................................................... 38

VI-7. Non-farming activities and extra incomes ................................................................ 39

VII. Rural development............................................................................................................... 40

VII-1. Current problems and perspectives for future ........................................................ 40

VII-2. Development consciousness of villagers ................................................................ 42

VIII. Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 45

Acknowledgements.................................................................................................................... 47

References................................................................................................................................ 48

Appendix 1. Village statistics sheet of Phonsavang ................................................................... 51

Appendix 2. Village statistics sheet of Donna ............................................................................ 52

Appendix 3. Interview results of selected men in Phonsavang................................................... 53

Appendix 4. Interview results of selected women in Phonsavang............................................... 54

Appendix 5. Interview results of selected men in Donna ............................................................ 55

Appendix 6. Interview results of selected women in Donna........................................................ 56


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I. Introduction I-1. Purpose of research

Main industry of Laos is agriculture: 43 percent of households are engaged in agricultural

activities, and Laos does not have a main industry except for agriculture and forestry. In terms

of percentage of GDP (in 1994), the agricultural sector accounted for 56.4 percent. As a result,

economic and technical assistance to Laos is mainly connected to agriculture and food such as

increase of yield, the construction of irrigation canals, improvement of farming fields and

emergency food aid.

It seems that the status of agriculture as the main industry will not change in the future so far

as these statistics show. Therefore Laos has to avoid development without clear a future plan.

Agricultural development is not simply to increase yield but to supply food stably without

environmental disruption. With the diffusion of agriculture technology, Robert Chambers, who

has studied the diffusion patterns of the agricultural technology, points out that “the reason why

farmers do not accept new technologies is not that they are poor in agricultural knowledge and

goods, but that outer experts do not understand farmer’s needs and the development process

of agriculture technology (KATSUMATA, M. 1990).” Relations between agricultural development

and the acceptance of technology are difficult matters. Whether farmers adopt the new

technology or they adhere to the traditional style is indicated by their sense of values which

have been made in the specific regional conditions such as natural environment, rural society,

history and religion.

Accordingly, the development agency must not ignore the villagers’ intents which are kept

secret by present matters. In the case of the UNDP/UNDCP small scale irrigation project in

Oudomxay and Luang Namtha, it is generally being practised based on comprehensive

feasibility and evaluation studies in order to succeed the scheme. The objectives of the first

phase of the scheme are, i) to establish and implement a new development methodology based

on the participatory approach, ii) to reduce the shifting cultivation practices by improving and

creating small scale irrigated schemes, iii) to increase production and income, and to improve

living conditions, according to the farmers’ priorities and capabilities, and iv) to strengthen the

overall capabilities of the rural communities, and the survey and construction companies in

order to continue the activities after the assistance period.

The scheme will continue on second phase, and also this study is practised for second phase

and accomplished by following above-mentioned objects. In this study report, the purposes are

focused on i) making clear the comprehensive features of villages, ii) understanding the

socio-economic activities, especially agriculture, and then analysing the villagers’ conciseness

of development related with the farming activities, the natural environment, the infrastructure,

the history and the circumstance.


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I-2. Methodology

Study sites selection and survey method Phonsavang village and Donna village in the

Nam Kha scheme were selected as study sites. The reason why these villages were selected

were that; i) fourteen villages are involved with the Nam Kha scheme, however, only these two

villages were not surveyed yet and did not understand anything about villages. ii) all these

villagers are completely concerned with a rice farming and doing it by use of both traditional

irrigation and shifting cultivation.

With respect to the survey method, geographical survey methods were mainly used in this

study. Geographical method is most useful for making clear regional characteristics such as;

natural conditions, historical changes, present status and the life style. Cultural anthropological

method which is to analysis their religion and custom, and RRA (Rapid Rural Appraisal) which is

used in development studies to do participatory survey are added to geographical survey

method.

The contents of the survey The contents of the survey and study schedule (Table I-1) are

as follows;

Table I-1 Study schedule

i) Interviewing village leaders

# Interview

# Ask for choosing a balanced selection of groups

ii) Making the land use map

# Make the land use map (Figure I-1); the arrangement of house buildings and fields)

iii) Interviewing selected groups

Date Place Survey items

1 Feb.28 (Wed) Phonsavang Moving to survey site, exchange greetings to Phonsavang village and Donna village leaders

2 29 (Thu) Phonsavang Interviewing village leaders and selected groups, Making a land use map

3 Mar.1 (Fri) Phonsavang Interviewing household, Making a land use map

4 2 (Sat) Phonsavang Land survey (shifting cultivation field and paddy field)

5 3 (Sun) Phonsavang Landscape survey

6 4 (Mon) Donna Interviewing village leaders and selected groups, Making a land use map

7 5 (Tue) Donna Interviewing household, Making a land use map

8 6 (Wed) Donna Land survey (shifting cultivation field and paddy field)

9 7 (Thu) Donna Landscape survey

10 8 (Fri) Coming back to Xay


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# Interview selected men; three each of young, middle-aged and old

# Interview selected women; three each of young, middle-aged and old

iv) Household interview

# Phonsavang village; choose five

each of households depending on

three different incomes (rich, middle

and poor)

# Donna village; choose three each of

households depending on three

different incomes (rich, middle and

poor)

v) Agricultural survey

# Interview; choosing three shifting

cultivation farmers and two paddy

farmers

# Survey the fields

vi) Landscape survey

# Make the land ownership map

# Make the typical house arrangement

# Make the layout of the typical house

# Make the sectional map of land use

# Survey the burial ground landscape

# Survey the marketing system

vii) Mental Map (Figure I-2)

# Ask villagers to draw their mental map

viii) Village statistics

# General statistics; population, household, sex, work force, area of fields, livestock

# Infrastructure; irrigation, thresher, water supply, electricity supply, road condition,

transportation, school, hospital, market

The personnel organisation of the survey team was;

# Satoshi Yokoyama: male, Japanese [Geographer: Saitama University, Japan]

# Volasith: female, Laotian [Women development specialist: Oudomxay project office]

# Phouvieng: male, Laotian [Agronomist: Oudomxay project office]

■ Boun Thala: male, Laotian [Irrigation Technician: Houn district agriculture and

forestry department]

Figure I-1 Making the Phonsavang village

map with villagers

Figure I-2 Mental map drawing


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II. Geographical features of the study area II-1. Geographical location

Figure II-1 The map of Lao P.D.R.

Phonsavang is 115.5 km and Donna is 116 km from Xay, Oudomxay provincial office town,

along the national road no.2 towards the southwest. The geographic position of both villages is

101°19’ east longitude and 20°01’ north latitude (Data from the U.S. Army Topographic map,

SHEET 5249 II “MUANG HOUN LAOS 1:50,000”). The geographical locations of Laos and the

study area are shown in Figure II-1. Two district town, Houn and Pakbeng, are located within

easy access from the study area. Both district towns have medium scale markets, hospitals and

secondary schools. Pakbeng is located along the Mekong river and plays an important role in

transportation to Luang Pabang by use of high-speed boat.

1000 500

Km

0

10°

15°

20°

25°

5°

THAILAND

CAMBODIA

VIETNAM

CHINA

MYANMAR

MALAYSIA

INDIA

110° 95° 100° 105°

LAOS


- 5 -

Figure II-2 The topographic map of study area

II-2. Natural conditions

The villages are located about 450 metres above sea level and are surrounded by mountains

on both sides. Northwest with the national road no.2 (Route 2) between ranges the mountains

which are higher than 1,000 meters. As shown in Figure II-2, these 1,000 meter class mountains

forms several mountain chains from northeast to southeast. The middle-land, where Donna and

Phonsavang are located along the Route 2 and

Nam Beng river, is in parallel with those mountain

chains. As the map shows, the topography around

the study area is a graben (rift valley) of old-aged

forms.

In Phonsavang village, there are many big

limestone and a few limestone caves which formed

lots of big lime-dripstone (Figure II-3) around a

northwest hillside. The mesh of limestone caves

covers a wide area. They also have a north hill

Figure II-3 Limestone cave in Phonsavang


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origin spring in the centre of village. The headwaters run underground as groundwater and then

are gushed out. Therefore, it is clear that the study area is karst landform from the above facts.

Figure II-4 shows the climate data at Houn. It is typical of rain forest monsoon climate of

Köppen’s climate classification. The study area has an annual sunshine variation because of

the 20º north latitude and also diurnal temperature variation because of the highland.

0

100

200

300

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12Month

0

10

20

30

Precipitation

Evapolation

Temperature

Note: Data is 2 years average from 1994 to 1995 at Houn district.Data source: UNDP Laos Udomxay project officeAnnual mean temperature: 23.9 (drgrees)Annual amount of precipitation: 1264.1 (mm)Annual amount of evapolation: 798.9 (mm)

Temperature (degrees)

Pre

cipi

tatio

n an

d E

vapo

latio

n (m

m)

Figure II-4 Seasonal changes in climatic condition at Houn district


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III. Historical and basic features of the study area

III-1. Historical changes and the background of settlement

The Phonsavang village previously lived a few

kilometres south of the Nam Beng River and there

were about 40 households in 1950s. At that time

the name of the village was Mouack. In the middle

of 1970s, they settled close to the Nam Beng river

and in 1988 settled along Route 2 about 115 km

southwest from Xay. Then the name of village also

changed into Phonsavang.

The Donna villagers previously lived a few

kilometres south of the Nam Beng river and the

name of village was Nam Mao at that time. They

had about 40 households in 1950. In 1975 they

changed the village name into Donna and a few

Lao Theung (Middle land Lao tribe) families moved

to Donna from Udom village. In 1993, they settled

along Route 2 about 116 km south-west from Xay.

As mentioned above, both villages have been

continually moving their locations through time. In

former times, they had lived near their rice farming

fields, but are now living along the Route 2 (Figure III-1). Some Lao Theung villages in

Oudomxay province were in fact settled along the main road under the government’s instruction

(Nippon Koei Co., Ltd. and Construction Project Consultants, Inc. 1993). However, in

Phonsavang and Donna villagers’ case, they were not instructed by the government but decided

to move themselves. Both villagers had a meeting when they decided to settle in a new location

and decided to move to a new place because they thought that easy access to public services

(medical services and educational opportunities) and markets were more important than to easy

access to their fields. It is clear that they are naturally involved in new social system,

nevertheless they do not know what it is.

III-2. Sawmill village “Hong Luai”

Oudomxana sawmill (Figure III-2) and its workers’ accommodation are located between

Phonsavang and Donna. The sawmill was established in 1994 under a government command.

The Laos government decided the sawmill location without the villagers’ agreement. The sawmill

manager is Thai, and most workers come from other Laotian provinces or Thailand.

Nam Beng River

1975

1988

The middle of 1970s

1993

Route 2

Sawmill accommodations

”Hong Luai”

Phonsavang

Donna

1994Nam Mui Stream

Pakbeng

Houn

0 1

km Note: This map is made by author’s fields survey. This is not accurate at scale and area.

Figure III-1 The historical background of

settlement


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The sawmill village, which was named “Hong

Luai” (means sawmill) by villagers, is

administratively included in Donna village.

However, no Donna villagers are conscious

that sawmill villagers are in their community

because all of them are strangers.

III-3. Size of the villages

The basic statistical data of villages which were surveyed of this time are shown in Table III-1.

These two villages are medium-sized compared with other villages in the Nam Kha scheme area.

The smallest village in the Nam Kha scheme is Nam Mieng which has 24 families and 134

persons. On the other hand, the largest one is Phien Nya village which has 76 families and 583

persons (OKABE, H. 1995). All villagers in Phonsavang are Lao Lum, however, few Lao Theung

people live in Donna. According to our interviews, most Lao Theung families in Donna are

inter-marriage families between Lao Lum and Lao Theung.

Table III-1 The number of families and population

(unit: person) Families Population Items

Village Total LL LT LS Total Male Female Labour force*

Phonsavang 58 58 0 0 398 191 207 131

Donna** 46 37 9 0 310 155 155 104 * 15-35 years old, ** Sawmill village “Hong Luai” is not being included in Donna data. Note: LL = Lao Lum (Lowland Lao tribe),LT = Lao Theung (Middle land Lao tribe), LS = Lao Sung

(Highland Lao tribe) Data Source: Phonsavang and Donna village committees

III-4. Village organisation

Laos has “Decree on the organization and administration of villages” based on Articles 62, 63

and 64, Chapter VII on Local Administration, of the Constitution of the Lao People’s Democratic

Republic. The village organisation of the study site (Table III-2) is almost following it, but not

exactly. They decide the members of each organisation by vote. Villagers nominate candidates

first, and then they cast a vote. The period of committee is usually two years.

In Phonsavang village, whether the members can extend their term or not is usually decided

not by a vote but by an agreement among villagers. The longest period is five years. On the

other hand in Donna village, they never fail to cast a vote when the members term expires in two

year period. Of course, some members might be re-elected again. Donna village has more

democratic system than Phonsavang village.

Figure III-2 Oudomxana sawmill


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III-5. Religion

All villagers of the study site were Buddhists and believe in Theravada Buddhism. Lao Theung

people live in Donna were Animists in former times, however, one Lao Theung person who is

one of the Donna administrative members said “I was an Animist before, but I now changed into

a Buddhist because I thought Buddhism is more comfortable than Animism. So I am following all

my religious functions of the Lao Lum people who believe in Buddhism.” However, in fact many

Lao Lum people practise Animism as well as Buddhism. It means that main religion for Lao Lum

is Buddhism, but they also spiritually practise Animism. On one hand Lao Lum people believe in

both Buddhism and Animism; on the other hand Lao Theung and Lao Sung people practise only

Animism.

Table III-3 Religious functions in Study area Month Functions Contents of function

Feb. Bun Khao-chi (Buddhism) Offer baked rice cake to temple

Mar. Bun Ta-nang Dok -mai (Buddhism) Offer flowers to temple

Apr. Bun Pi-mai (Buddhism) New Year’s festival (Water festival)

Jun Bun Liang Phi-Muang (Animism) Festival of the Village Spirit, sacrifice chickens to the Village Spirit

July Bun Khao-phan-sa (Buddhism) The beginning day of the Buddhist Lent

Aug. Ho Khao Pa-dap-din (Buddhism) The rice growing festival (and also for festival of dedication to the dead)

Sep. Ho Khao Sarak (Buddhism) Festival of dedication to the dead

Bun Ook -phan-sa (Buddhism) The last day of the Buddhist Lent

Bun Song-hua (Buddhism) Boat race among neighbouring villages Oct.

Loy Ka-thong (Buddhism) Ceremony of casting symbolic lantern boats to float away sin

Nov. Bun Khong Khao (Animism) Hold it only in case of a good harvest, Offer rice to temple

(May) Sut Ban (Karam Ban) (Animism) For 3 days, usually held on May, hold it any time if necessary, it functions as a kind of function of exocism of the villager’s evil spirit

Table III-2 Village organisation of study area The number of person Title Role Sex

Phonsavang Donna

Village Administration

General (Chief) Socio-economic (Deputy) Culture, Education and Agriculture (Deputy)

male male male

1 1 1

1 1 1

Elder Union Problem solving both 2 2

Youth Union Problem solving both 3 3

Women’s Union Problem solving about taking care children Guest receiving

female female

1 1

1 1

Defence-order committee

Patrol the village Crime prevention

men 2 4

Doctor Health and Primary health care management - 1 -


- 10 -

Animism is a very complicated system, and it depends on the kinds of tribes. One tribe

practise only the spiritual worship or the ancestral worship, but another tribe may practise both.

To give an example of Animism of Lao Lum, they worship spirits “Phi” which dwell in the land,

forest, village, house, river and trees, namely, almost all important existential materials. There

are two kinds of Phi; an evil spirit and a good spirit. Thus people interpret bad things as the

work of the evil spirit and good things as the work of the good spirit. Both villages have the

village wooden pagoda “Shin-chai Ban” in the centre of village (Figure III-3) to protect their

villages from the evil spirit. When the survey team had just arrived at Phonsavang, ”Karam Ban”,

which is one of the Animism functions of the village evil spirit exorcism, was being held in the

living area. Because two villagers has consecutively died, the villager had decided to held the

Karam Ban. It was held for three days and an exorcist exorcised the evil sprit by sacrificing two

chickens to the evil spirit. In order to keep the evil spirit in

the village, it is enclosed off the border of the living area

with cotton threads, and outer people must not enter the

living area for three days. In addition to Karam Ban, a kind

of Animism ceremony called “sukuan” or “ba-si” is openly

held in the village. In the ba-si ceremony, the guardian

spirits “khvan” are bound by white string to the wrist of the

guest in order to invoke good fortune and prosperity.

Animism is rooted among Lao Lum people as in the

examples above, however, their regular religious functions

are based on Buddhism (Table III-3).

Figure III-3 Village wooden pagoda

at Phonsavang


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IV. Land use and landscape

IV-1. Land use

Land use maps of Phonsavang and Donna are shown in Figure III-4 and Figure III-5. Paddy

fields, shifting cultivation fields, orchards, many teakwood plantations and other farming fields

which are located outer villages are not drawn in these maps because they are impossible to

draw precisely without aerial photographs and the latest large scale maps. Regarding the inner

living area, the field owner numbers are clearly shown in the figures. Orchards shown in the map

are full of variety. The main fruits are banana and papaya as well as tamarind, mango, jackfruit,

sugar apple (sugar sop) and pomelo (grapefruit). These fruits are found not only in the

described area but also in many other places.

Agricultural land use is described in Chapter VI.

The sawmill is located between Phonsavang and Donna. Outline land use of sawmill is drawn

in Donna map of Figure III-5. The sawmill building and lumberyard were originally Donna

Route 2

5

S

S

S S

S

Thresher

Grocery

Village wooden Pagoda House

Teakwood (1 year)

Saw

mill

Temple

S: Sawmill worker’s house

Pakbeng, DonnaHoun

Nam Beng River

Publicmeetingplace

Grave yard

Not to scale

N

Orchard & Trees

Orchard & Trees

1

S

S

234

5 67

89

1012

11

13

14

16

17

18

19

20

MT

MD

M

Teakwood (3 years)

Teakwood (8 years)

15

SpringRock

Village Clinic

Play Ground

Primary School

Small Vegetable Gardens

Orchard & Trees

M: Motorbike

T: Dump Truck

D: Drugstore

1,11

2,14

3,16

4,12

6,7,9,13

8,15

10

17

18

19

20

Village Boat place

1-20: Owner signs of Teakwood

squatter houses

Figure III-4 Land use map of inner Phonsavang


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belongings. Donna administratively belongs to these sites at present, but the sawmill has the

right to use it. All sawmill workers who come from outer Phonsavang and Donna live in sawmill

accommodation. They are supplied with electricity by the factory and some of the workers’

families run several groceries. There are six sawmill workers in Phonsavang and four workers in

Donna, too. In addition to the sawmill, there are six squatter houses in Phonsavang village area.

Phonsavang villagers do not care about them and these houses do not belong to the village

organisations. The squatters were mostly Lao Theung people.

Each village has public places like a temple “Wat” and a meeting place “Samoson”. Other

public facilities such as a school, a clinic and a drugstore are in Phonsavang but Donna

villagers are also able to use them. While Phonsavang has a graveyard near the

accommodation area, Donna does not have a graveyard. Phonsavang made it when they

settled to the present place in 1988, but Donna still has it at the old village site. In Donna, there

is a graveyard of the Oudom village which is located about 2 km away from Pakbeng. It was

already in its position before Donna settled.

S S 1 B c

L: Lao Thong B: Boat

Electricity

Thresher

Grocery

Village wooden Pagoda

Fish Pond

Well

Sawmill

Temple

S: Sawmill worker’s house

7

1-7: Owner No. of Fish Pond

Route 2 Pakbeng, Oudom

Nam Mui Stream

Public meeting place

Sawmill worker accommodations

Sawmill Lumberyard

Orchard & Trees

Not to scale

N

5 6

3 4

2

1

L

L

5 6 2

B

B

7 B B b

B

B

4 B 3 B

L

L

L

L B L S

L L B

B B a

S

Orchard & Trees a

Teakwood (3 years)

c

b

Owned by Phonsavan

villager

a-c: Owner No. of Teakwood House

Grave yard of Oudom

village

Houn, Phonsavang

Figure III-5 Land use map of inner Donna


- 13 -

IV-2. Landscape

The village landscape between mountains is different

from that of open fields. Basically the rural settlement in

Laos is formed irregular clustered farm village which is

without any orderly plan to direct their growth. In case

of open fields, settlements and their places to do

economic activities were located before the main road

was constructed. Therefore the mode of production

such as agriculture, fishery or forestry and their

settlement can be found around the road. In the case of

the study area, however, the main road was

constructed first and after those villagers settled along

the road in order to get public services. Therefore the

mode of production can not be found by viewing only

the living area. Some new activities such as teakwood

plantations and fish ponds are confirmed in the inner

village.

There are small groceries along Route 2. It is one of

the common features of Laos. And another, there is a

sawmill between Phonsavang and Donna along Route 2.

It may safely be said that the sawmill is a very strange

building because there are not any industrial facilities

along Route 2. There is a Chinese capital garment factory near Xay which is a provincial town,

but it is small compared with the sawmill. The sawmill clearly stands out from ordinary house

buildings in the rural area. There is more detailed information about the sawmill in chapter IV-3.

The village landscapes of Phonsavang are shown in Figure III-6 (i). Route 2 and two squatter

houses are shown in the foreground of the figure. A complete picture of the Phonsavang is hard

to see, but the temple on the hill can be found. Mountains which are bald here and there in

Figure III-6 (i) are shifting cultivation fields of Phonsavang. The village landscapes of Donna are

shown in Figure III-6 (ii).

House type is different among tribes. Lao Lum families generally live stilt house, while the Lao

Theung or Lao Sung people live in houses which are directly built on the ground. Although there

are nine Lao Theung families in Donna, all houses are stilt house. The sawmill workers’ houses

and Lao Theung squatter houses are directly built on the ground.

Figure III-7 shows a typical house in the study area. The family consists of father, mother,

daughter (15 years old) and son (12 years old), and the living level is the up medium. The floor

area of house per person may be wider than other families. The house was built in 1994 and is

(i) Phonsavang （taken at the hill of

sawmill）

(ii) Donna (taken at the centre of

village)

Figure III-6 The village landscapes


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made of Burmese ebony (Pterocarpus macrocarpus)

“May Du” which is hardwood tree. The total cost for

building the house was about 400,000kip (US$550).

They do not have any kind of furniture, but have

hunting and fishing tools, bedclothes, baskets,

tablewares and kitchen utensils. Tablewares and

kitchen utensils are kept at Bed room (A). Cooking

spaces are kitchen and Terrace (A) and these are

detached from the main building. Kitchen and terrace

of many houses in the study area are usually

detached from the main building as shown in Figure

III-7 (i).

In the kitchen are hunting and fishing tools, and a

shelf up to the fire place for making smoked foods.

Usually the kitchen is used for storing foods and the

place for using fire, but it functions as a dining room

for women and children if guests come. Men and

guests have a meal at a sitting area when guests

come, but women and children can not come out to

the sitting area. Terrace (A) is used for washing

vegetables, scraping off scales, washing tableware

and cleaning clothes. There is nothing in the sitting

area and the room is poorly lighted. Windows on the

sitting area were boarded up because it is cold in the

winter season (from November to February).

Under the floor of the stilt house is used for working

spaces such as weaving (Figure III-8) and storing their

foods. In the case of the house in the photo, there was

a weaving machine, a bicycle, sticky rice for making

liquor, liquor “Lao hai”, firewood, baskets for fishing

and buffalo plough tools.

The building materials, especially wall and roof

materials make a big difference among the villagers. In

the case of the Figure III-7, the roof and wall are made

of wood. In addition to wood, materials listed in Table

III-4 are used in the study area. Although expensive

materials are durable and easy to maintain, it does not

Terrace(A)

Bed room

(B)

(for parents)B

ed room (A

)(for daughter)

Mattress(for son)

Sitting area

Kitchen

Windows(boarded up)

Rice

Garlicchili

Hunting and fishing goodsFire place Firewood

Terrace(B)

Bananas in the chaff

1m

(i) Plain figure of house

(ii) House overview

(iii) Wooden roof

Figure III-7 Typical house in study site

(A house of Mr. Xieng Veuy in Donna)


- 15 -

always follow that these are comfortable.

In fact, owing to over 40 degrees in the hottest season (from March to May), a bamboo wall

and a thatched roof may be more comfortable than a mortar wall and a slate roof. So that it can

not be said that rich families use expensive materials, however poor families commonly use a

thatched roof and a bamboo wall. Wooden roofs are widely used in temples and are comfortable,

cheep and easy to maintain. The only problem is that the construction work requires much time.

Villagers choose building materials depending on their taste and cost. In order of frequency,

thatch, tin, wood and slate are used for roofs, and wood, bamboo and finished mortar are used

for walls.

The graveyard landscape is closely concerned with religion. Most Lao Lum are Theravada

Buddhists. Theravada Buddhists around Southeast Asia cremate and then bury their dead thus

villagers must decide the place where they will do that, and that place becomes their graveyard.

After the cremation the villagers set a wooden frame as the grave-post (Figure III-9). Some of

them construct small houses, and some only put a wooden stick in the ground. These

grave-post styles change depending on the financial ability of the bereaved family and the age

or status of the dead person.

Villagers do not cremate in the case where more than two persons die consecutively or an

infant dies. Then these graves do not have a grave-post. For example in Phonsavang, just

before arrived the survey team, a 76 years old man died of old age and then a 16 year old

young woman died of an ill-defined disease the day after the old man’s death. In such case,

villagers do not cremate the second dead person, because the soul of the old man who is

cremated and buried can not be perfectly consigned only in a day. Therefore the second dead

person is only buried without cremating. However, villagers said this custom is changeable by an

earnest desire of the bereaved family.

IV-3. Space perception of villagers

In order to understand the villagers’ geographic space perception, the author tried to ask

Table III-4 The characteristics of building materials

Items

Materials Price Maintenance

Heat insulating

Air permeability

Labour for construction

Thatch Cheap Every 2 years Bad Very good much

Tin Expensive If necessary Good Bad Less

Wood Ordinary Broken part only Ordinary Good Very much

Roof

Slate Very expensive Not necessary Very good Bad Ordinary

Bamboo Cheap Every 3-4 years Very bad Good Less

Wood Ordinary Broken part only Ordinary Ordinary Ordinary

Wall

Mortar finished Very expensive Broken part only Very good Bad much


- 16 -

villagers to draw a village map as they like. This kind of

map is called a “mental map,” which is often used in

geographic research. The mental maps which are drawn

by various villagers indicate their thinking. The drawn

elements may be unconsciously drawn by them, yet

usually it consists of the elements of which people think it

is important or strange, and also its sphere of drawing can

indicate their sphere of action. The results of the mental

map analysis are shown in Table III-5 and some examples

of the mental maps are shown in Figure III-10.

As a result of the map analysis, almost all the

Phonsavang villagers drew Route 2, the spring and the

Nam Beng river. Following these, the temple “Wat”, the

public meeting place “Samoson” and their own house

come next, and some of them drew the sawmill, the school

and the village clinic. As regards Donna, Route 2, the

sawmill, the temple, the Nam Mui river, the Nam Beng river,

their own house and the spring are shown in many of their

mental maps. Wells and threshers were only drawn by

less than half of the villagers.

The important elements for them are pass and water. Most of the villagers have these images

in their head. For the Donna villagers, the spring in Phonsavang is a very important drinking

water source, so that it is drawn by many villagers despite its location in Phonsavang. Donna

has wells as another water source, however these were drawn by only seven Donna villagers.

The reason for not drawing these wells might be that those are used less frequently. And no

one drew Samoson in Donna. Because their Samoson stands in the same area with the temple,

villagers might not think to separate Samoson from the temple. All the Donna villagers and

seven Phonsavang villagers drew the sawmill. Why did they draw it although there is many other

important facilities, for example, the wells, the school, the village clinic etc.? The answer is that

the sawmill is a heterogeneous element in their community. The sawmill was constructed in 1994

without the villagers’ consent (mentioned in Chapter III-2) and, right or wrong, it must make a

strong impact on their rural society.

The Donna villagers drew the map wider than the Phonsavang villagers. Many Donna villagers

drew the Phonsavang spring, but in contrast, most of the Phonsavang villagers drew only the

inner part of their village. Except for the spring, the sphere of drawing of both two villages is

nearly the same. However, a few people in both villages drew neighbouring villages. When

neighbouring village can not be ignored for living, it means that they regard helping each other

Figure III-8 Weaving under the house

Figure III-9 Graveyard in Phonsavang


- 17 -

as an important activity.

Besides, it is remarkable that two old men in Phonsavang drew old the village positions.

Usually people do not draw non-existent elements. It indicates that they remember the

settlement from these old positions and the events have important meanings for them.

Table III-5 The results of the mental map analysis

Landmark

Route 2

Phonsavang's S

pring

Nam

Beng R

iver

Nam

Mui R

iver

Phonsavang T

emple

Donna T

emple

Public M

eeting Place

School

Village C

linic

Donna's W

ell

Thresher

Saw

mill

Ow

n House

Sphere of D

rawing *

Other Remarkable Elements

Y1 W All neighboring villages positionY2 M His rice field positionY3 NM1 MM2 MM3 MO1 M Old village positionsO2 W Old village positionsO3 MY1 MY2 MY3 MM1 N Mountains and sunM2 NM3 NO1 MO2 MO3 MY1 W Forest and fruits fieldY2 W Nam Mui village positionY3 WM1 M Banana fieldM2 MM3 M Direction of sunrise and sunset O1 MO2 MO3 MY1 WY2 WY3 WM1 WM2 WM3 WO1 WO2 WO3 W

Note: Y1, Y2, Y3: Young people, M1, M2, M3: Meddle aged people, O1, O2, O3: Older people* W (Wide range): Drawing the outer part of their village

M (Middle range): Drawing the inner part of their villageN (Narrow range): Drawing the their village center only

Wom

en

Donna

Phonsavang

Men

Wom

enM

en


- 18 -

Figure III-10 Mental Maps of Villagers

(I) Middle-aged woman in Phonsavang

(ii) Older man in Phonsavang

(iii) Young man in Phonsavang

(iv) Young man in Donna

Temple

Meeting place

Spring

Sawmill

School

Route 2

Her house

Nam Beng river Temple

Village Spring

Nam Beng river

path

Donna village

Old village

Old village

Saw

mill

Route 2

Phonsavang Village

Nam Beng river

Saw

mill

Route 2

Nam Mao river

Donna village

Don Keo village

Koa Nam Mao village

Spring

His house

Temple

Threshe

r

Route 2

Field

Threshe

Spring

Forest

Forest

Nam Mui river

Sawmill

Village

Wells


- 19 -

V. Infrastructure

V-1. Personal properties

The villagers’ personal properties are shown in Table V-1. It is

clear that Phonsavang thinks much of access to markets and

public services, and Donna thinks much of river transportation and

fishing.

Figure V-1 shows a thresher. The owner bought the thresher at

400,000 kip (=US$560 at that time) in 1994 in cooperation with

relatives. He can get 100 kip/kalon (1 kalon =about 16 kg hulled

rice) from thresher users and consumes about 100 litre/year

(35,000 kip =US$38) petrol. As a result of the balance, he earns

70,000 kip (=US$76) a year by the thresher. There is a thresher

owner in Donna who earns as much as 200,000 kip (=US$217).

The price of a boat engine is between

100,000 kip (=US$109) and 160,000 kip

(=US$174) second-hand. It depends on

HP and the condition of the engine. The

boat engine owners consume more than

50 litre/year of petrol.

V-2. Water supply

The water supply situations are shown in Table V-2. Phonsavang has two natural water supply

sources - the Nam Beng River (Figure V-2) and a spring “Nam Ook Bo” (Figure V-3). The Nam

Beng River is 200 meters away from the village and the spring is located in the centre of the

village.

Donna has the Nam Beng River and two wells (Figure V-4) as water supply sources. Although

Donna is located along the Nam Mui stream, villagers can scarcely use the Nam Mui stream

water because of the bad quality. The Nam Mui stream

is only used to supply water to fishponds. The Nam

Beng river is 500 meters away from the village and the

wells are located in the centre of the village.

The spring water is good quality and used for all

purpose, accordingly all villagers draw their drinking

water from the spring. The spring is thought to be one

of ground water which is flowing in a joint of the Karst

landform. Water of the Nam Beng River is mainly used

Figure V-1 Thresher

Table V-1 Personal properties in the study area Items

Village Phonsavang Donna

Car (ISUZU Dump truck) 1 -

Motorbike (HONDA Dream) 2 -

Boat engine - 13

Thresher 4 3

Figure V-2 The Nam Beng river


- 20 -

for washing tableware, laundry and bathing, yet

villagers who are living nearer the spring than Nam

Beng River do not use the river.

The Donna wells were dug this year by assistance

from the Houn district hospital. However, they could

dig only 3 meters owing to a rock layer under the

ground. The water of the wells is not suitable for

drinking, therefore the Donna villagers usually go to

draw drinking water to the Phonsavang village’s spring.

The distance between the two villages is about 700

meters.

Carrying water is the children’s and women’s job.

Usually schoolchildren go to school with plastic

buckets in order to take back water in the afternoon

and the evening. It is very heavy work, especially for

the Donna villagers. According to the interviews, the

Donna villagers are eager to get a clean drinking

water source in the village.

V-3. Electricity

The two villages basically do not have electricity supply facilities, but there is one house in

Donna which receives its electricity supply from the sawmill. There are two sawmill workers in

that house, and it is fortunate that the house is located very close to the sawmill. The sawmill is

supplying electricity to workers within the limits of the possible. The service hours are from

sunset to 21:00 and electricity is free. Except for workers who are living in the sawmill village

“Ban Hong Luai”, most of the sawmill workers in Phonsavang and Donna are not supplied with

Table V-2 Water supply situation of study area

Items Village

For drinking For washing tableware For laundry For bathing

Phonsavang Spring Spring Spring Nam Beng River

Spring Nam Beng River

Donna Spring Wells Wells Spring

Spring Wells Nam Beng River

Note: in the order of frequency in use

Figure V-3 The spring in

Phonsavang

Figure V-4 Wells in Donna


- 21 -

electricity because they live far from the sawmill.

Typical villagers, usually spend their night time by use of candle and a kerosene lamp, but

poor villagers spend their night time without light or only a candle.

V-4. Educational facility

School children of the two villages

attend the Boribun primary school

(Figure V-5) which is located in

Phonsavang. School age depends on

household economy situations. Some

children can enter school at six years

old because it is not necessary for them

to help, but some children enter at ten years old because they must help with housework or take

care of babies. There are several children who do not enter school at all because they are

regarded as one of the labour force for their family.

As children finish five-year primary school, they usually start working. Only a few children go to

secondary school which is located either in Houn (district town) or Xay (provincial town).

Some schoolteachers come from Houn and live next to the school. The villagers give the

teachers rice as pay.

V-5. Medical

There are a village clinic, facilities and a drugstore, and a doctor is stationed in Phonsavang.

The doctor sent by the Houn district office looks after Phonsavang, Donna and areas around

the villages and is working without pay. He is from Vientiane and worked as an army doctor. He

gets money by selling medicines at the drugstore.

When villagers get sick, they used to get traditional treatment or to see a faith curer, however,

now they go to the village clinic or purchase medicines. Even Lao Theung, who is animist, does

so. The richer persons go to bigger hospital like the Houn district hospital at Houn or Oudomxay

provincial hospital at Xay. A few richer people have even gone to Luang Pabang, Vientiane and

Thailand for treatment.

The cost of medical treatment is 1,000 - 2,000 kip per time for a cold, a headache or a

stomach-ache. and 50,000 kip per time for malaria. Annual expenses for medical treatment are

2,000 - 2,000,000 kip. The costs for health are very expensive in comparison with commodity

prices, so that the poorer peoples get less treatment and are more unhealthy.

V-6. Public facilities

Almost all Laotian villages where the religion of the villagers is Buddhist have at least one

Figure V-5 Boribun primary school at Phonsavang


- 22 -

temple “Wat” in the village, and the study area is also

no exception to this case. The locations of the temples

of both villages stand on a hill (Figure V-6).

There is a meeting place “Samoson” (Figure V-7) in

both villages. These Samoson only have a roof and

pillars with benches underneath. Usually these are

used for public purposes: meetings, interviews and

farewell ceremony “Basi” were held at both meeting

places when the survey team visited and studied. It can

be also used as a wedding ceremony place. The

Samoson in Donna was used as school in former time,

but is now used as a Samoson. The Donna Samoson is

shabby compared with Phonsavang’s.

In addition to the public meeting place, the village

leader’s house is used when a village committee

meeting is held or they receive guests.

V-7. Communications

Road and river transportation Route 2 goes

through from Xay to Pakbeng, playing a very important

role for economic activities in the study area. The road

condition is very bad. As shown in Figure V-8, it is

paved but there are potholes everywhere. Between

Phonsavang or Donna and Xay, 116 km away, it takes

at least 4 hours and a half even if a experienced driver

drives.

Both villages have public transportation services, but

there are not regular services. Several private pick-up

truck taxis “Rot-doisane”, which are permitted by the

provincial or governmental authority, run between major

towns. The fare for one person by use of a pick-up

truck taxi is 700 kip (US$0.8) from Phonsavang or

Donna to Houn (23 km away), 800 kip (US$0.9) to

Pakbeng (28 km away) and 3,000 kip (US$3.3) to Xay

(116 km away). In case of emergency or when there are

no taxis, villagers negotiate with passing cars about the

Figure V-9 Wooden Boat under

making

Figure V-6 Phonsavang temple

Figure V-7 Phonsavang’s public

meeting place

Figure V-8 The road condition of the

Route 2


- 23 -

fare and then most of passing cars generally consent to pick them up. In such a case the fare is

normally a little bit more expensive than the ordinary fare.

There is a dump truck in Phonsavang. It is used for a wide range of purpose such as

transporting people, rice and forest products. However, it is not a public car, so that the dump

truck owner never moves it without recovering the petrol cost.

Both villages have plenty of wooden boats (Figure V-9). They use those in the Nam Beng river

and those are not used for transport but fishing, going to their rice fields and ferrying across the

Nam Beng river (only in the rainy season). Because Donna’s rice fields are faraway from their

living area, Donna villagers use the boats more often than Phonsavang, and they have nine

boat engines as well as the boats.

As regards Mekong river transportation, Pakbeng is connected with Luang Pabang and Houay

Xay. Houay Xay is the one of towns which have opened on the border between Thailand and

Laos. The distance from Pakbeng to both towns are about 150 km. It takes more than 5 hours,

depending on the season and the boat. When villagers in the study area go to Thailand, they

generally use the Mekong river route through Pakbeng and Houay Xay. In fact, some shop

owners in Phonsavang have gone to Thailand by use of this route for stocking things to sell.

Telephone and post There is no telephone network in the study area. When villagers want

to use the telephone, they need to go to the PTT (Post, Telephone and Telegram) office at

Houn. A posting service is also unavailable for villagers, however, if there is mail for the villagers,

the PTT asks people who go in the direction of village to bring the mail.

V-8. Market

There are seven grocery stores in Phonsavang and two in Donna and all of those are located

alongside the Route 2 as shown in Figures III-4 and III-5. Table V-3 shows retail prices of

selected items in the study area and Vientiane. Those shops do not sell fresh foods such as

meat, fish, vegetables and rice. Their goods are daily necessities and preserved foods such as

tinned foods, dried foods, seasonings and drinks as listed in Table V-3. The reason why shops

do not sell such fresh foods is that almost all the villagers can get these things by themselves,

and also private sellers of fresh things are wide spread in the village. In addition to this, meat

merchants frequently come to the villages to sell fresh meets.

The retail prices of Laos made things in the study area are more expensive than Vientiane

because the transportation cost is added. For example, salt is 2.5 times as expensive as

Vientiane’s one because it is transported from Vientiane province. However, some of the

Chinese imports are cheaper than Vientiane, because the added transportation cost is less than

Vientiane. Some Thailand imports are also cheap as the shop owner sometimes goes to

Thailand via Pakbeng-Houay Xay route to get things at a low price.


- 24 -

Villagers go to Houn market or Pakbeng market in order to get clothes, farming tools and other

things. There are all kinds of retailer tenants in those markets, so that shop owners also

frequently go to there to get retail things.

Table V-3 Retail price of selected items in the study area (grocery at Phonsavang) and

Vientiane Items Study Area Vientiane

(unit) Country

(kip) (kip) Pre cooked noodles “mi wai-wai” Thailand 200 200 Dry noodles Thailand 250 200 Foods Tinned fish Tin Thailand 250 350 Chemical seasoning bag Thailand 1,300 1,300 Fish sauce Bottle Thailand 1,000 900 Pepper Laos 50 - Salt 12kg Laos 1,500 600

Sea-sonings

Shrimp paste condiment “kapi” Thailand 300 250 Factory made sticky rice liquor “lao-lao” Bottle Laos 1,500 700 Home made sticky rice liquor “lao-lao” Bottle Laos 600 600/litre Drinking water Bottle Laos 300 300 Energy drink “krathinden” Bottle Thailand 500 600

Drinks

Soft drink Bottle Thailand 150 150 Laotian cigarette “A-den” Laos 500 400 Laotian cigarette “dok -mai-den” Laos 300 300 Cig. Chinese cigarette China 100 - Washing powder Box Thailand 200 300 Washing powder Bag Thailand 50 50 Toothpaste Tube Thailand 300 350 Soap “Lux” Thailand 300 300 Body powder Thailand 300 250 Toothbrush Thailand 200 200 Washing sponge for dish Thailand 50 50 Dry battery (Large size) China 100 100 Torch China 600 1,000 Candle China 100 150 Ball-point pen Thailand 100 150

Thailand - 50 Matches Box

China 25 - Washing brush Thailand 200 200 Comb Thailand 150 200 Thread for sewing machine Thailand 300 300 Mirror (Medium/Small) Thailand 400/300 - Rubber sandal Thailand 1,300 1,500 Nails Kg Thailand 1,000 800

Daily goods

Kerosene Litre ? 400 250

Note: The official exchange rate as of March in 1995 was US$1 to 920 kip.

During the survey by the study team, Lao Theung peoples came down to Phonsavang from

their village, which is located about eleven hours walk from Phonsavang and named Phu Se, in

order to sell their products such as broom and sticky rice (Figure V-10). Phonsavang’s grocery


- 25 -

buy these by unit of kilogram, for example 300 kip per

kilogram for broom and 3,500 kip per 16 kg (1 kalon)

for hulled sticky rice. The shop owner usually

wholesales those to Houn, Pakbeng and Xay markets,

and sells some of them at his shop. In addition to the

neighbouring Lao Theung people, Donna people also

come to sell their products to Phonsavang’s grocery,

and also there is a dump truck. As a result,

Phonsavang serves as a nodal point of market in spite

of being a small village.

The main agricultural product of the study area is rice.

Family consumption is the first priority of rice consumption and to make a store for crop failures

is a second priority. Only in the case where there is surplus rice, they lend or sell to needed

families. Accordingly their market of agriculture products is limited to the inner village.

Other things, such as sesames and the bark of mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera Vent.)

“Posa” which is used for making traditional paper are exported to Thailand. A kind of

sandalwood (Dracaena cambodiana P.) “Chan Tai” which is used for medicine or perfume is

exported to China.

Figure V-10 Lao Theung people sell

their things at grocery in

Phonsavang


- 26 -

VI. Socio-economic activities

VI-1. Historical change of socio-economic activities

The socio-economic activities of both villages change to meet the demands of the times and

the market (Figure VI-1). Silk products and fabrics flourished in both villages till the 1980s,

however, these began to decrease from the 1970s, and stopped in the middle of the 1980s in

Phonsavang and in 1988 in Donna. In addition to silk, cotton production began to decrease in

Donna from 1988. The reason why they stopped silk products is that it does not pay. Regarding

cotton, because Donna does not have a sales channel, the demand for cotton products was

replaced by increasing chemical fabrics. Many cotton fabrics are still produced in both villages,

so that fixed sales channel must be needed.

Regarding rice production, Donna produced the rice only in shifting cultivation fields till the

1970s. The area of shifting cultivation fields began to decrease from 1980s with the

development of paddy fields, however, they can not extend the paddy fields more because of

lack of irrigation water. This is the reason why they still depend on the shifting cultivation fields

so much. In Phonsavang, they changed the shifting cultivation farming into paddy farming

around the middle of the 1980s by developing traditional irrigation. They succeeded in reducing

the shifting cultivation fields, however, they will not be able to reduce it more without increasing

the yield per area.

Phonsavang had produced tobacco and bamboo to respond to the demand of the inner

village only. In the 1970s they increased production because of market demand. Fruits and

bamboo of Donna was reduced in 1993 because of the movement to new place, however there

are still many fruits and bamboo cultivated at the old village place.

The production trends of teakwood and sesame are similar in both villages. Teakwood started

to be planted as they settled to a new place and after that production rapidly increased. They

changed the black sesame production into white sesame because of buyers’ demand. Somehow

sesame is not so popular in both villages.

The diffusion process of lettuce and cabbage is very interesting. According to one villager of

Donna, The Chinese who lived near Donna planted lettuce and cabbage, then a Donna villager

wanted to try to eat them and so he stole some of them. He felt that these were very delicious

and stole again in order to plant some for himself. At first only a few families planted them,

however, now most of families in both village plant them.


- 27 -

’50 ’60 ’70 ’80 ’90

Donna Phonsavang

Note: Height of bar shows a quantity of crops. Donna settled to present position.

Phonsavang settled to present position.

Silk

Cotton

Upland rice

Black sesame

White sesame

Tobacco

Teakwood

Bamboo

Fruits

Lettuce Cabbage

Weaving and its

materials

Lowland rice

Rice

Corn Banana

Sugarcane

Cash crop

Vegetables, fruits and

others

Figure VI-1 The changes of economic activities in Phonsavang village


- 28 -

VI-2. Cropping calendar

In study area rice farming is the nucleus of the socio-economic activities of the villagers. Most

of their labour is given to rice farming, and an upland rice farming is especially remarkable for it.

The cropping calendar is shown in Table VI-2. The time of rice harvest depends on the kind of

rice. The kind of rice shown in table VI-2 is middle term rice. The harvest of long-term rice is

harvested in November, and short one is in September. Burning the field and sowing rice seed

takes only one day. Vegetables are grown along the riverside. In the rainy season, the

vegetable gardens are covered with the river water, so that villagers stop growing vegetables at

riverside garden during the rainy season. In the shifting cultivation field, corn, cotton and other

kind of vegetables are grown with upland rice.

If lowland rice and upland rice are compared, growing upland rice needs much more time and

includes heavy labour such as slashing and fencing.

VI-3. Farming activities

Rice farming The size of the paddy

fields in Phonsavang is larger than those

in Donna (Figure VI-2, Table VI-3 and

also see Appendix 1 and 2). With respect

to the shifting cultivation fields, however,

Donna’s are much larger. Although the

types of rice field in the two villages is

Month 1 2 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12Upland rice, corn, cotton

slashingburning (1day)fencing & cleaningsowing (1day)weedingharvesttransporting to house

Lowland riceseedlingploughingtransplanting a seedlingharvesttransporting to house

Vegetable harvesttomato, chillicassavahighland vegetables*

*cabbage, lettuce, a kind of Chinese cabbage and a kind of saltgreen

3 4

Table VI-2 Cropping calendar

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1

Phonsavang

Donna

RatioPaddy Shifting cultivation field

Figure VI-2 The ratio of rice fields in study area


- 29 -

different, the size of total field per family is

almost the same. The area of shifting

cultivation fields changes every year. If the

total area for shifting cultivation fields is

calculated simply, it must increase the area

four times so that they have a system of

year cultivation with a fallow period of four

years. Thus the area of shifting cultivation

fields of Phonsavang becomes 32.8 ha

(8.2 ha X 4) and that of Donna becomes

119.2 ha (29.8 ha X 4) as a result of

calculation.

As shown in Figure II-2, there are

mountains on both sides of villages, and

the villagers have less potential for

developing the paddy fields area.

Comparing to the two villages, Donna

seems to have more flatlands but they are

not close to the living area. In fact, Donna

had constructed their own irrigation canals

from the Nam Mao and developed paddy

fields around 1990. However, they,

abandoned the rice farming in about

three-fifths of the developed paddy fields

because of a lack of irrigation water. The

abandoned paddy fields naturally changed

into coppices.

The two villages differ widely in that

Donna’s dominant system is shifting

cultivation whereas Phonsavang’s is paddy

cultivation. Also the family holding ratio of

Table VI-3 Rice Fields in study area (1995)

Paddy field Shifting cultivation fields* Total Rice Fields Items Village Area (ha) Per family (ha) Area (ha) Per family (ha) Area (ha) Per family (ha)

Phonsavang 50.8 0.87 8.2 0.14 59.0 1.02

Donna 19.7 0.43 29.8 0.65 49.5 1.08 * Shifting cultivation fields of both villages are not total area but area per annum in 1995.

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1

Phonsavang

Donna

RatioPaddy field only Shifting cultivation field onlyBoth Nothing

Figure VI-3 The holding ratio of rice fields

0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25

Phonsavang

Donna

Rice farming area per capita (ha/person)

Paddy Field Only Shifting Cultivation Field Only Both

Poverty line

Figure VI-4 The average area per capita of rice farming fields depending on type of farming

0.00

0.10

0.20

0.30

0.00 0.10 0.20 0.30

Paddy field (Lowland rice) [ha/person]

Shi

fting

cul

tivat

ion

field

(Upl

and

rice)

[ha/

pers

on] Phonsavang

Donna

Lowland rice dom

inant

Upland rice dominant

Figure VI-5 A relationship of average size per capita

between paddy fields and shifting cultivation fields


- 30 -

Shifting cultivation field (Upland rice)

Paddy field (Lowland rice)

A bar indicates the holding size of rice farming field of one family.

2.5 2.0 1.5 1.0 0.5 0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 (ha) (ha)

2.5 2.0 1.5 1.0 0.5 0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 (ha) (ha)

(i) Phonsavang

(ii) Donna

Figure VI-6 Rice farming of study area

rice fields are quite different in both villages.

The figures which concern the rice farming

system are shown from Figure VI-3 to Figure

VI-5. Figure VI-3 shows the holding ratio of rice

fields. In Phonsavang, more than half (55.2

percent) of families cultivate only paddy field,

and 86.2 percent of families hold paddy in total.

In Donna, the families which hold only paddy

field are a small number, but if families holding

both types are added, families holding paddy

field become 69.5 percent. However, families

which hold shifting cultivation fields are over

88.6 percent, and it is clear that a dominant

farming type is shifting cultivation.

The average yields of rice are about 2 tons/ha

(1.1 tons/ha in hulled rice) in both paddy fields

and shifting cultivation fields. The yields of some

new paddy fields are more than 3 tons/ha, but

yields of ordinary fields are 2 tons/ha. The

annual minimum consumption of rice per person

is about 300 kg (170 kg/person in hulled rice),

accordingly, they need a minimum of 0.15 ha of

rice farming fields per person. Figure VI-4 is the

results of calculation of the area of rice farming

fields per capita depending on farming type. As

a result, the families of both villages which have

only shifting cultivation fields can not secure a

minimum quantity of rice. In the case of Donna,

although paddy families also can not secure

enough rice as well as shifting cultivation families, farmers who hold both fields have enough

fields to produce surplus rice. Paddy field farmer in Phonsavang who hold both fields just

produce rice for their own consumption.

To try to make clear the villages farming system, the ratio of the rice farming fields type is

analysed. Figure VI-5 and Figure VI-6 show rice farming of the study area. Rice farming in

Phonsavang is paddy dominant system, however that in Donna is shifting cultivation dominant

system (Figure VI-5). Figure VI-6 (i) illustrates that the Phonsavang families which hold wider

paddy hold few shifting cultivation fields if compared with the families which hold only shifting


- 31 -

cultivation fields. Because it is not

necessary for the families which hold wider

paddy to do heavy labour of shifting

cultivation, they tend to stop it. Shifting

cultivation plays a role of making up for the

crop shortage of paddy field. Therefore, the

size of shifting cultivation fields is decreased

in inverse proportion to increasing the

paddy fields.

In Donna, the relation between the shifting

cultivation area and paddy is not simple.

Villagers who hold wide paddy fields hold

the wide shifting cultivation fields, and the

area of shifting cultivation fields of the

paddy dominant families is almost the same

as the shifting cultivation dominant families

(Figure VI-6 (ii)). The family holding size of

shifting cultivation fields do not change with

the size of holding paddy fields. To get more

Nam Beng River

The National Road No.2

PhonsavangDonna

Nam MuiStream

Pakbeng

Houn

0 1

km

Nam MaoStream

Shifting cultivation fields

Paddy fields

Note: This map was made by author’s fields survey.This is not accurate at scale and area.

PS : Owned by Phonsavang

DN: Owned by Donna

DN

DNPS PS

PS

PS

PS

PS

PSPS

DNDN

River or stream Irrigation canal

Figure VI-7 Outline location of rice farming fields.

Table VI-4 Types of Forest lands

Types Purposes Forbidden things

Protection forests “Pa hovang-ham”

i) Protection of water resource ii) Protection against soil erosion iii) Protection of steep slopes iv) National strategic defence areas v) Protection against natural disasters vi) Protection environment and others

i) Cutting any trees ii) Collecting any forest produces iii) Farming activities

Conservation forests

“Pa sa-nguan”

Preservation of life, nature and others (which hold special value for the environment, education and culture)

i) Cutting any trees ii) Collecting any forest produces iii) Farming activities iv) Hunting

Production forests “Pa som-sai”

Forest lands which are allotted to meet the requirements in national economic development and people’s living condition (without any impact on the environment)

Regenerated forests

Forest lands which must be regenerated and maintained into production forests

Cutting trees excepting using for firewood, building houses, making boats (All activities must obtain permission of authority such as MAF*, province, district or village. )

Degraded forest lands

Forest lands which are seriously damaged forest or land without forest cover or bald land which are allotted to permanent agriculture, forestry and livestock production.

*MAF: The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry Note: This table was made by referred to the Prime Minister’s Decree No. 99/PM.


- 32 -

rice, rich farmers in Phonsavang try to extend more

paddy fields with Phonsavang’s system, but rich farmers

in Donna try to extend more shifting cultivation fields with

Donna’s system.

Locations of rice farming fields are shown in Figure

VI-7. It is difficult to estimate precisely the area of fields,

and also difficult to classify land uses. Basically land

uses, especially forest classifications, are defined in

“Decree of the prime minister on the management and

use of forests and forest land, Chapter II Delineation and

classification of Forest Types” which was pursuant to the

Prime Minister’s Decree No. 99/PM, dated 19/03/1993,

on the management and use of land. The decree

classified forestland into five types as shown in Table

VI-3 and set the Article 31; Rotating Shifting Cultivation

or Gardening by the Population. According to the Article

31, villagers do rotating slash and burn or orchard

cultivation only within degraded land or non-forest land

and have to convert to the appropriate sedentary

agriculture, forestry and livestock production as much as

possible. In Figure VI-7, shifting cultivation fields, paddy

fields and living areas are classified as degraded forest

land, other area are classified as protection forests,

conservation forests and production forests. According

to interview with village’s chief, existence of regenerated

forests is not confirmed and production forest was called

shifting cultivation forests “Pa-Lao samlap Het-hai”. Both

villages punish any person who did hunting in

conservation forests with a fine of 15,000 kip (US$16)

and cut a big tree in protection forests or conservation

forests with a fine of about US$300.

In 1995, these forest classifications were introduced

into the villages, two years after the Decree had been

decided. Till then, both villages had managed forest in their territory by themselves, however, in

fact the forests had been randomly exploited. Interviews with shifting cultivation farmers clearly

indicate the fact, because five out of six interviewees said that they could extend their cultivation

lands when no one used the neighbouring field.

(i) shifting cultivation fields Landscape

(ii) The fallow period of a year

(iii) The fallow period of 3 years

(iv) The fallow period of 4 years

Figure VI-8 Shifting cultivation fields


- 33 -

The shifting cultivation system of both villages

is a year cultivation with a fallow period of four

years. So they usually have four fields for

cultivation. The fields are already determined

because they inherit the field from ancestors,

and there is little space to cultivate between

production lands. As a result, although villagers

know that the soil fertility becomes good and

increases the yields when the fallows period

lengthen, villagers can not extend the fields

easily. In the case of new villagers, they have to

look for and develop a new cultivation field.

According to a new villager who came to Donna

in 1986, he uses the field which is alloted by

village administration every year.

Shifting cultivation farmers leave big trees,

hard trees and stumps as their standards of

slashing, however few big trees have been left

in their field. A condition of their shifting cultivation lands is shown in Figure VI-8. There is only a

kind of weeds with 40-50 cm height in the land of the first-year fallow. After three years, the

secondary forests grow higher than human height, the kinds of secondary forests are bamboo

“May-pay”, a kind of pine tree “Ton-pao”, a kind of weed which is called France grass “Nya-kilo”

(Eupatorium odoratum L.), a kind of sensitive plant which is called communist grass “Nya-nyup”

(Mimosa pudica L.), cogon grass (or thatch grass) “Nya-kha” (Imperata cylindrica L.) and others.

The height of the weeds becomes higher and grows in high density, but trees do not grow big

after only four years. Four years is not a sustainable fallow period.

The farming tool for doing shifting cultivation is the traditional axe. The axe is used for slashing

and harvesting. When farmers seed rice seed in the field, they use only a wooden stick as the

seeding tool. They do not use any fertiliser or compost.

Both villages constructed an irrigation canal themselves from the Nam Mao stream or its

branches to develop paddy fields (Figure VI-9). Basically their rice is a single crop, however in

the Phonsavang paddy which is located in the upper Nam Mao stream (shown in Figure VI-7)

two crops a year are grown. It is impossible to cultivate two crops a year at the paddy fields

downstream because of the lack of irrigation water.

The villagers who hold paddy fields take the lead in maintenance of the irrigation canals at

least once a year. The main maintenance works are to dig the canal wider and to remove

obstacles such as branches, stones, and leaves.

(i) Paddy field

(ii) Irrigation canal

Figure VI-9 Landscape of Paddy and canal

Canal

Nam Mao


- 34 -

The farming tools for doing

paddy cultivation are the

traditional sickle, the buffalo

plough and the buffalo wooden

rake (Figure VI-10).

There are 14 paddy families in

Phonsavang and 5 paddy

families in Donna which do not

raise any buffalo (Figure VI-11,

and also see Appendix 1 and 2). The

paddy families which do not possess any

buffaloes in Donna hold only less than 0.1

ha/person, but families in Phonsavang

hold more than 0.1 ha/person. Perhaps,

less than 0.1 ha/person (=10 X 10

m2/person) is a possible size to plough

without using buffalo, however ploughing

an area of more than 0.15 ha/person

(=38.7 X 38.7 m2/person) without using

buffalo require very hard labour. Therefore,

most of paddy families in Phonsavang’s which do not possess any buffaloes have to hire a

buffalo from someone. The buffalo owner can get 30 kalon (about 266 kg un-hulled rice) of rice

per buffalo. 30 kalon of rice is equivalent to an adult man’s consumption per year.

They do not use any fertiliser or compost, however buffalo dung substitute for compost.

The survey team investigated the farmer’s daily rhythm (Table VI-5). Villagers do not have

electricity except for one Donna family, so that they keep early hours in order to effectively use

the sunshine. The times shown in Table VI-5 might not be precise because many villagers

usually did not have any watch or clock. The hour to rise depends on the cockcrow.

The farmers get up around 5 a.m. (one farmer said “cockcrow in twice.”), and then they go to

their field on foot. Paddy fields of Phonsavang are not so far. They can reach there within 30

minutes, but shifting cultivation fields of them are very far: about one hour. In the case of the

Donna villagers, they generally use a boat to go to the fields which are located along the Nam

Beng river. They work for more than 8 hours. It is very hard to work in the hot season. They

make a sunshade hut in the field every year to avoid strong sunshine and they take a nap in the

hut at the breaking time in noon. After finishing work, they bathe, and have a meal. They sleep

at the latest 9 p.m.

0

2

4

6

8

10

<.05 .05<.1 .1<.15 .15<.2 .2<.25 .25<The area of paddy fields per person

(ha/person)

The num

ber of family

Phonsavang Donna

Figure VI-11 The number of paddy cultivation

families which do not possess any buffalo

(i) Buffalo plough

(ii) Buffalo rake

Figure VI-10 Farming tools using in paddy field


- 35 -

Table VI-5 Typical farmer’s daily rhythm of Phonsavang (cultivation season) 4:00 6:00 8:00 10:00 12:00 14:00 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:00

sleep moving to field/home

work meal

break (nap, bathing)

Livestock Many villagers feed livestock such as buffaloes, pigs and poultry (chickens,

ducks and turkeys) for selling, home consumption and other purposes(Table VI-6, and also see

Appendix 1 and 2). Buffaloes are raised especially for ploughing paddy fields. Pigs are mainly

for selling and poultry are mainly for home consumption. The selling price of a buffalo is from

150,000 kip (US$163) to 200,000 kip (US$217), and about 100,000 kip (US$109) in case of

child buffalo. The pig is from 12,500 kip (US$14) to 40,000 kip (US$44) depending on the weight,

the chicken is from 1,000 kip (US$1.1) to 1,500 kip (US$1.6), the duck is from 2,000 kip

(US$2.2) to 3,000 kip (US$3.3) and turkey is 9,000 kip (US$9.8). Although feeding cattle and

goats is popular around the Houn district, in the study area feed nothing. They eat these

livestock for themselves as one of protein sources in addition to selling, however, the occasion

of eating livestock is limited. Because they do not have any storage methods except for doing

jerked meet, they only eat livestock on the occasion of special day when many people eat

together such as a party, ceremony, inviting guests, and something like that. Usually they have

to eat all when they kill their livestock. The Phonsavang villagers have much more opportunities

to eat poultry in comparison with Donna. On the other hand Donna villagers do eat more fish.

They basically raise livestock free range: buffaloes are grazed in the cultivation fields, and

pigs and poultry are kept in the living area. Therefore villagers must fence off all of their

cultivation field and garden that their crops are not eaten by the livestock.

Livestock diseases are often seen in both villages. When the survey team interviewed the

villagers, many families answered that all their chickens died last winter season by ill-defined

disease. Some of the owners of livestock vaccinate their livestock. The vaccination of buffalo is

given about twice a year at 400 kip per buffaloes by a veterinarian of the agriculture and

forestry bureau of the district. However they do not give vaccination and preventive injection in

case where their livestock is healthy, so these injections do not have any real meaning.

Table VI-6 Number of livestock in study area Buffaloes Pigs Poultry Items

Village Number Per Family Number Per Family Number Per Family

Phonsavang 160 2.8 182 3.1 1,068 18.4

Donna 109 2.4 88 1.9 142 3.1


- 36 -

Forestry Both villages started planting teakwood when they

settled in the new location, Phonsavang in 1988 and Donna in 1993.

Table VI-7 shows teakwood production (also see Appendix 1 and 2).

At first, the villagers purchase nursery teakwood at 50 kip/tree, and

plant them at narrow spaces in April. Teakwood grows about 50

centimetres high in a year, then the owner transplants them in wider

fields at intervals of 2.5 metres. When the trunk of the teakwood grows

thicker than 25 centimetres, they sell them at 27,000 kip/m3 (US$29 at

present). According to one owner, about 90 percent of trees grow well

in a shorter time. The price was also very attractive and many families

recently started planting it.

Other farming activities The villagers cultivate garden vegetables as other farming

activities. The kinds of vegetables are highland vegetables such as cabbage, lettuce, a kind of

saltgreen and a kind of Chinese cabbage, tomato and

chilli. They generally plant these vegetables in the

riverside, therefore they are not able to cultivate them

in the rainy season because these vegetable fields are

submerged under river water (Figure VI-13). The water

of the Nam Beng river change more than one metre

through a year. The reason why they cultivate there in

spite of not being able to grow during the rainy season

is that the renewed soil which is transported from

upstream is accumulated every year. Chemical fertiliser

or compost is not used but dung is widely used.

In addition to garden vegetables, corn, cassava,

tobacco (Figure VI-14), sesame and cotton are grown.

Corn, cotton and sesame are mainly planted in shifting

cultivation fields, cassava is planted anywhere, tobacco

is planted in the riverside. In case of rice shortage,

those crops play an important role as a substitute for

Figure VI-12

Teakwood plantation

(1 year) and planter

Table VI-7 Teakwood production in study area items

village Area (ha)

The number of trees

The number of planting families

Per family

Phonsavang 3.26 7,350 12 127

Donna 2.7 5,740 11 125

Figure VI-13 A change in the water

Figure VI-14 Cutting the tobacco leaves

Maximum water level


- 37 -

rice or in order to get rice. Food shortage, especially

of rice, occurs from August to September. Then the

villagers sell or exchange their livestock, cotton

clothes which are wove for themselves, and cash

crops such as tobacco and sesame in order to get rice.

Persons who have no goods for sell must substitute

corn and cassava for rice.

Making traditional liquor “Lao-lao” (Figure VI-15) is

also popular among villagers, but poor families which

can not get enough rice do not make it. It is distilled

liquor which is made from sticky rice, and the equipment is very simple. The alcoholic strength

depends on the method of distilling, it is usually 40-45 percent, however some of it must be

more than 70 percent because they catch fire.

VI-4. Fishery

Fishery is especially popular among the Donna

villagers. They use wooden boats such as in Figure

VI-16 and various fishing tackle. The Donna villagers

have nine boat engines but they do not use them

during the dry season because of the low level of river

water. They have two method of fishing; i) casting a

cast-net “Hee” whose edges are weighted by a lead in

the river and drawn up, and ii) surrounding the places

where there are signs of fishes staying such as the

point of slow current, water-weeds and tree roots that

project into the water by fishnet “Mong” and then diving

into the water with water glasses “Na-kak ” to shoot a

fish by use of a water-shooter “Na-nying-pa” (Figure

VI-17). The water shooter which is made of wood is very

strong, its structure is the same as a crossbow except

for using rubber threads.

They also set up a contrivance net (basket) ”Hlock,

chan” in the Nam Beng river, however it is limited to the

dry season of low water level and also night time of no

river navigation.

Donna village have seven fish ponds (Figure VI-18)

along the Nam Mui stream in which they cultivate fish

Figure VI-15 Distilling into sticky rice

liquor “Lao-lao”

Figure VI-16 Fishing in the Nam Beng

river

Hitch rubber threadsround arrowInsert into

stock

rubber threads Figure VI-17 Water-shooter

“Na-nying-pa”

Figure VI-18 Fish pond in Donna


- 38 -

which they catch in the Nam Beng.

The fish caught in the Nam Beng and fishes cultivated in fish ponds are consumed by

themselves, and also sold to sawmill workers who have no farming or fishing activities.

VI-5. Weaving

Almost all families of both villages have weaving

machines and weave fabrics. The material is the cotton

which villagers grow in the shifting cultivation field. They

do everything; planting cotton, harvesting, cutting

(Figure VI-19), spinning into threads, and weaving. The

kinds of cotton fabrics are tablecloths, traditional skirts

“Sin”, blankets and a kind of towel “Pha-set”. The retail

prices are shown in Table VI-8. According to our

interviews, the Donna villagers earn from 0 to 160,000

kip in 1995 and Phonsavang villagers earn from 0 kip to 100,000 kip. Earning 0 kip means that

although they weave, these fabrics could not be sold.

Table VIII-7 The retail price of cotton fabrics Item Price (kip)

Table cloth 2,000-6,000 (depending on size and design)

Traditional skirt 5,000-6,000 (depending on size and design)

Blanket 2,500-3,000 (depending on size and design)

Towel 1,000 Note: The official exchange rate as of study was US$1 to 920 kip.

VI-6. Gathering forest production

All villagers gather forest products such as wild animals (a wild pig “Mu-pa” and a field mouse

“Nu-pa”), bamboo shoots “No-may”, the bark of mulberry “Posa” and a kind of sandalwood

“Chantai” (Posa and Chantai are described in chapter VI-8-2) for self-consumption or selling. In

order to exchange these productions into rice, gathering forest production is especially popular

with poor families who lack rice.

Collecting Posa is the most common activity among the above-mentioned activities. At first,

villagers collect the bark of mulberry and pare only the outermost layer of the bark, and then

they dry these bark in the sun. It is called Posa and used as material for making traditional

paper. The price of Posa is 350 kip/kg. Poor people in villages could earn at least 5,000 kip in

1995 by producing Posa.

Figure VI-19 Cutting the raw cotton


- 39 -

VI-7. Non-farming activities and extra incomes

A typical non-farming activity is to work at a sawmill. Working in the sawmill factory is not so

easy, one worker said “sawmill work is the same kind of hard labour as slash-and-burn

cultivation, but only working under the shade may be better than slash-and-burn cultivation.”

There are 7 sawmill workers in Phonsavang and 4 workers in Donna. They are on a five-day

working week and the monthly salary of ordinary worker is 30,000 kip. Special jobs like a dump

truck driver and a watch man earn much more than ordinary worker, however their holiday is

irregular. In addition to permanent workers, the sawmill employs some pert time worker.

They also have a labour exchange system. The labour exchanges are generally done

between relatives in case of a busy time or when some one in the family is feeling sick. It is one

of the social systems in which they strengthen the ties of blood by helping each other work.

They do not engage in employment relationship in this case.

On the other side, they have a real system of the employment relationship in the villages

between the poor and the rich. This system is that the poor who do not hold enough rice fields

give their labour to the rich who hold many rice fields, and the poor get some rice for their

labour. This is forms a relationship of patron-client. It does not always follow that the clients take

the same patron because the relationship of patron-client is formed. However the rich patron

and the poor client is almost always determined. When poorer and richer have a relationship by

blood or marriage, the rich give life assistance to the poor without compensation. This humane

system of mutual cooperation is called ”Suay-leua-kan”, and it is widely found in other villages in

Laos as well as in the study area.

This mutual cooperation system between relatives applies not only to the inner village but to

the outer village as well. For example, one poor family in Phonsavang is irregularly aided money

of 10,000 - 20,000 kip (about US$11 - 22) by a brother who does agriculture in the Bokeo

province, and in the case of one example of a middle level family in Donna, one aunt who settled

in California, USA when the socialist revolution occurred in 1975 aided the family with money of

5,000 Thailand Baht (about US$200). Our survey team could confirm only these two examples,

however there may be more example around the study area, especially in the Lao Theung and

Lao Sung villages because of the many sacrifices in the Vietnam War and the socialist

revolution in 1975 (AOYAMA, T. 1995).


- 40 -

VII. Rural development

VII-1. Current problems and perspectives for future

Infrastructure problems and perspectives for future Donna does not have any clean

water source in the inner village. This year the Donna villagers dug two wells in the inner village

with assistance from the Houn district hospital. However, the quality of its water was not

appropriate for drinking. Villagers could dig wells only three metres deep because there was a

rock layer under the ground. As a result, Donna villagers still go to draw drinking water from

Phonsavang’s spring. It is really hard labour, and children or women usually play a role in this

work of drawing the water. Donna villagers are eager to get a clean drinking water source in the

village.

The area around the study area is topographically karst landform formed by limestone.

Generally, the karst landform is developed by groundwater, and it is known that the limestone

layer contains about 40 percent water. It means the area around the study area must have

plenty of groundwater. Because water resources are one of the most important matter to live

and cultivate for people whom livie in rural areas, a detailed geological survey is recommended

in order to develop groundwater resources.

Both two villages were settled along the main road during last the 30 years. They now want to

get easy access to markets for selling or exchanging their goods and various public services.

Nevertheless the selling channels, especially weaving fabrics, are not established perfectly.

Except for someone coming to buy, villagers do not have any place to sell their fabrics. Because

weaving is one of the important cash sources among their activities and also helps raise

women’s status in society, the promotion of weaving has become the key for rural development

around the study area. One woman in Donna said to us "I made twenty cotton blankets, but no

one came to buy in 1995. So all of them were left." In order to promote weaving, the

development and establishment of selling channel for weaving fabrics is needed, and would

make a large contribution to the villagers' self-help.

To understand how the markets at neighbouring towns such as Houn or Pakbeng are

organised in retail system, and what kind of cotton fabrics is demanded are very important in

order to promote selling their fabrics.

Agricultural problems and perspectives for the future Despite the flat land to develop

paddy fields in Donna, they can not use it because of a lack of irrigation water. When they made

a traditional irrigation canal from the Nam Mao, they developed more than 50 ha paddy fields at

first. However now about three-fifth paddy fields have become fallow. With respect to


- 41 -

Phonsavang, their traditional irrigation canals are just dug, and it is very hard to keep better

conditions.

When the author surveyed the Nathung village, which is located about 40 kilometres away

from Xay toward to Luang Namtha, the villagers said that they could succeed in increasing the

yield 1.5 times by developing modern irrigation in comparison with the yield of the traditional

irrigated paddy fields in former times. According to a JICA (Japan International Cooperation

Agency) expert who works at the Department of Irrigation, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry,

the yield can be increased by improving irrigation facilities. Nathung village is not a special case,

so modern irrigation system can be applied to other areas and increase the yield.

By supplying stable irrigation water, Phonsavang must increase the paddy yield and Donna

can extend the paddy area. Therefore securing stable irrigation water could not only increased

the yield or extend the paddy fields but also reduce the area of shifting cultivation fields.

In case of success with extending paddy fields and with increased production by introducing

irrigation, the development organisations side such as foreign government agencies or the

United Nations have to think about the paddy fields distribution to shifting cultivation families and

training for new technology such as irrigation water distribution. The poor families who do

shifting cultivation do not have enough money to buy paddy field and also most farmers do not

know how to manage irrigation water.

According to our interviews, shifting cultivation farmers think that they can easily extend their

shifting cultivation field when no one possesses neighbouring land. In the extensible area, which

villagers say is classified as protected forest or conservation forest, it is impossible to extend

because in these areas the village or government has already been decided not to cut any

trees. In addition, most of its area has been already possessed by someone, too. Thus paddy

farmers who hold enough size might not have problems at present, but they may rely on shifting

cultivation again if a high birth rate continues. As a result, they can not physically extend the

shifting cultivation field more. On the one hand it is a good thing viewed from preservation of the

forest, but on the other in the future it must become a subject of discussion of stable food

supply.

The shifting cultivation of the fallow period of 4 years is not a sustainable system. According to

various reports, soil and vegetation are strongly effected due to the short fallow period. Ideally

speaking the fallow period must be more than ten years in order to keep a high yield and

prevent soil damage (The Nabong Agriculture College Project of the UNDP 1994). Also doing

shifting cultivation in the watershed region of the irrigation water source has a great impact on

the quantity of irrigation water. Accordingly, the development organisations side has to

comprehensively educate the villagers in water management and controlling the shifting

cultivation.


- 42 -

Economical and village social problems and future discussions There are 14 paddy

families in Phonsavang and 5 paddy families in Donna which do not raise any buffalo.

Phonsavang’s situation is an especially serious problem. Without buffalo, they have to work

harder to plough, and also pay a borrowing charge for the buffaloes. Therefore, in

comprehensive rural development, the development organisations side has to consider the

method of buffaloes supply with the development of paddy. As one of the methods, introducing

a village managed buffalo bank as in the UNDP/UNCDF schemes may be effective in distributing

buffaloes to all paddy families.

Some interviewed middle-aged men in Donna were keen to introduce the credit system, and in

fact one family had got into debt of 25,000 kip in 1982 to buy a buffalo. He spent three years in

repaying without interest. Introducing a village revolving fund would be very helpful for

investment in sustainable agricultural activities such as starting cultivating cash crops, raising

livestock, constructing fish ponds, planting teakwood, purchasing important farming equipment,

etc.

In addition to the buffalo bank and the revolving fund, there is a rice bank. The rice bank is

effective in the case of a lean year for the rice crop or the term of rice shortage during

September to December, however, many management problems also exist. Organising the rice

bank community and involving the poor in the activity are especially very difficult (The Nabong

Agriculture College Project of the UNDP 1994). With regard to introducing the rice bank, at first

the development organisations side must do case studies of the rice bank in the Laos, secondly

must discus the problem with villagers and thus decide whether it should be introduced or not.

It can not be denied that the mutual cooperation system ”Suay-leua-kan” (see chapter VI-7)

helps the life of the poor. However, the relations between the poor and the rich will not change

in the future if the present economic system of rice farming monoculture continues. In a rice

farming monoculture economic system, persons who hold many rice fields or yield much rice

have much power. Specialising in various works such as a handicraft or woodworking might be

useful as one of the methods of emerging from the monoculture system.

An Increasing population in the study area is also a big social problem. One family has an

average of four children, some of them have more. They would not get enough rice if they do

birth control, although they can succeed in increasing the yield by introducing modern irrigation.

Birth control education is needed to develop agriculture in rural areas. As a subsequent

consequence of birth control, woman’s burden may be also lighten.

VII-2. Development consciousness of villagers

According to our interview (see Appendix 3-6 and Table VII-1), men generally desire to extend

or start paddy field cultivation and to introduce modern irrigation systems, on the other hand


- 43 -

women generally desire to raise livestock and to promote weaving in addition to paddy fields. It

seems that the gender roles in the family are reflected in the results of the interviews. The men’s

role in the family is related to rice farming activities, raising livestock (especially buffaloes),

fishing, maintenance or building house, gathering forest products (especially Posa, Chan-tai,

wild pig and field-mouse) and collecting wood. Women’s roles are associated with rice farming

activities (except for slashing), keeping vegetable gardens, raising livestock (especially pigs and

poultry), taking care of children, cooking, weaving, collecting wood (especially firewood),

gathering forest products (especially Posa, Chan-tai and bamboo shoots). These roles are not

always clearly separated: sometimes the husband or children substitute for women’s role when

their wife or mother is pregnant. Women’s works may look easier than that of men’s, however

these works are as hard as men’s works because women must always do these as well as taking

care of children. In the case of having a baby especially, many women suffer pains in the back

and the waist.

The shifting cultivation farmers in both villages desire to develop irrigated paddy fields. They

want to stop shifting cultivation because it is hard labour and the yields are greatly influenced by

the weather. The development of paddy fields and irrigation systems may be effective in

satisfying the farmers' intentions. In addition, villagers and the development organisation side

must consider development in parallel with other activities such as vegetable farming, teakwood

plantation, raising livestock and constructing fish pond in order to emerge from a monoculture

system, and these must be decided depending on market demand, market size and villagers

skill or knowledge.

There is a difference in the villagers’ needs between the two villages. People usually want to

Table VII-1. Villagers’ needs Phonsavang Donna Village

Items of villagers’ needs Man Woman Man Woman

Paddy field with irrigation ◎ ○ ◎ ○

Raising livestock ◎ ◎ ○ ◎

Vegetable garden ○

Promoting weaving ◎ ◎

Planting teakwood ◎ ○ ◎

Fish pond ◎ ○

Clean drinking water source ◎ ◎

Electricity ○ ○

Constructing new house ○ ○

Improving or constructing public facilities ○ ○ ◎ ◎

Introduce credit service ○ ○ ◎

◎ much need, ○ need Data source is from interview.


- 44 -

get things which they do not have. For example, the Phonsavang villagers want to get fishponds

because they do not have them (Table VII-1). On the other hand, the Donna villagers want to

construct their own public facilities such as a school, a village clinic, etc. These facilities are

located in Phonsavang, and it seems that it is not necessary for Donna to construct these

facilities in the inner village because the distance between two villages is very short. These

trends are also confirmed within the village. Regarding the electricity supply, only the Donna

villagers want to get its supply. The reason why only Donna villagers said so is that the sawmill

accommodations and one sawmill worker house in Donna receives an electricity supply from the

sawmill.

Consequently, besides basic needs to live such as paddy fields and drinking water source,

villagers’ needs are resulted from circumstances. By continuously moving about their village,

they knew of new activities such as planting teakwood, constructing fish pond, gathering Posa

and Chan-tai to export to foreign countries, etc. It means that they were influenced

unconsciously from economic system with the times, and thus their development consciousness

and land use will be decided based on how involved into circumstances.


- 45 -

VIII. Conclusion

This study report has attempted to make clear the comprehensive features of the villages, to

understand the socio-economic activities and to analyse the villagers’ conciseness of

development related to their farming activities, the natural environment, the infrastructure,

history and local circumstance.

The geographical location of the study area is about 116 km from Xay and surrounded by

mountains on both sides. The living area of two villages is located on about 450 metres above

the sea in the rift valley. Villagers cultivate lowland rice, which use traditional irrigated paddy

fields, in small flat land of the valley and upland rice, which use shifting cultivation fields, in the

mountains.

Villagers have continuously been moving their village locations through time. In a former time

they had lived near rice farming fields in the mountain, but now live along Route 2 in the flat land

of the valley, because they think that easy access to public services and market are more

important than easy access to their farming fields. After the settlement along the Route 2, the

sawmill was established in 1994 between Phonsavang and Donna. The sawmill has greatly

influenced the villagers, and functioned as place to work for some villagers, a place to sell their

products and electricity supply source. According to the villagers’ mental maps analyses, right or

wrong, it makes a strong impact on their rural society. This historical background is reflected in

many village features such as land use, landscape and their socio-economic activities.

As regards infrastructure, the main facilities such as the primary school, the village clinic, the

drugstore and clean drinking water source are located in Phonsavang and these facilities are

also used by Donna villagers. Personal properties like a dump truck, motorbikes and boat

engines show one of the village features, and it is clear that people in Phonsavang think of

access to markets and public services as important, while people in Donna think more of river

transportation and fishing. At first, people in Phonsavang did not have any transportation in

their village, but some villagers purchased a dump truck and motorbikes after they settled to the

main road. In Donna, they did not have any boat engines when they lived near their cultivation

fields but they purchased them after they settled to the main road, because their cultivation

fields became far from their living area and also to do fishing in the river on the way to their

fields became popular among villagers. Therefore items of the personal properties are decided

by the mode of socio-economic activities and the infrastructure level usually keeps step with

changing socio-economic activities.

The socio-economic activities of the study area are mainly concerned with agriculture. They

grow rice as they live on rice, and they grow vegetables (highland vegetables, saltgreen,

Chinese cabbage, chilli etc.), corn and cassava. In addition to rice and vegetable farming, they

raise livestock and catch fish to get protein. Most crops are used for self-consumption, however,


- 46 -

some families have surplus crops or livestock to sell. In order to get a cash income, they also

cultivate cash crops such as tobacco and sesame, plant teakwood, weave cotton fabrics, gather

forest production such as wild animals, bamboo shoots, the bark of mulberry and a kind of

sandalwood.

There are two kinds of rice farming methods; paddy and shifting cultivation. Paddy is dominant

in Phonsavang, while shifting cultivation is dominant system in Donna. Because both villages,

especially Phonsavang, have developed the traditional irrigated paddy field in the narrow flat

land of valley, lands for possible development are scarcely left. Therefore, if they have to

increase producing more rice by continuing on their high birth rate, paddy farmers also may rely

on shifting cultivation again. However shifting cultivation fields (the degraded forest land) are

also difficult to extend more because the area of the degraded forest land is already decided its

use by the village or government. In addition, most of its area has been already possessed by

someone, too.

Based on above-mentioned facts, villagers’ intentions and present problems, this report

suggested the following discussions for the future;

# To survey and develop Donna’s water source

# To develop local markets to promote weaving

# To construct new modern irrigation systems to increase rice yield and to reduce shifting

cultivation

i) To think paddy fields distribution to villagers if new paddy fields are developed

ii) To educate villagers to distribute irrigation water if new paddy fields are developed

# To educate villagers to control shifting cultivation

# To introduce a buffalo bank and credit system

# To consider introducing a rice bank

# To think how to emerge from a monoculture economic system of rice farming

i) To introduce stable cash crop

ii) To promote raising livestock

iii) To promote planting teakwood

# To give birth control education

The villagers’ activities and intentions are made based on historical background and

circumstances and will continuously change with times. Most of their activities which they

decided by themselves might be right, however, they can not sometimes control their own

activities such as increasing the area of shifting cultivation fields or deforesting because of

population pressure. In this case, it is useful for them to get help and advice about these

matters from development organisations. Development organisations must study comprehensive


- 47 -

village structure and try to understand their hidden consciousness from history, land use or

interview.


- 47 -

Acknowledgements

This survey was made possible through the support of the UNDP/UNCDF Small scale irrigation

project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha: Mr. Paul OVERGOOR (Chief Technical Adviser), Mr.

Houmpheng BOUPHAKHAM (National Project Director), Mr. Eric DUFLOS (Programme Officer of

UNCDF in Vientiane UNDP office) and the other staff of the project office who assisted in all of

this survey, and I am grateful to Dr. Stephen KELLER (Emergency Coordinator of World Food

Programme in Vientiane office) who provided us with important agricultural data, and Mr. Hervé

BAROIS (Agriculture consultant in Vientiane UNDP office), Ms. Mikiko TANAKA (Programme

Officer in Vientiane UNDP office) and Mr. Akio MURAYAMA (UNV specialist in the LAO

Waterworks Bureau “Nam Papa Lao”) who helped the survey in both project site and Vientiane.

The author would also like to express his gratitude to following professors at Saitama

University: Dr. Mineaki KANNO, Dr. Yasushi MOTOKI and Dr. Mitsuru YAMAMOTO who gave me

well-rounded advice, and Mr. Neil COWIE who edited and corrected this paper.

A portion of expense for this study was funded by a grant-in-aid from the Mitsubishi Bank

Foundation /The Supporting Organization of JOCV(Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers).

Finally, the author owes the highest gratitude to all organisations which helped this study and

the UNDP Vientiane office, and would like to thank the village organisations of study area for

their contributions to the household-level survey.


- 48 -

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Appendix 1. Village statistics sheet of Phonsavang

Households Agriculture LivestockNo. Household Total Female Male Labor Paddy Shifting Teakwood Buffalo Pig Poultry

Name force (ha) (ton/ha) (ha) (ton/ha) (ha) tree1 Th. Vie 9 6 3 2 1.02 1 5 202 Th. Boun 2 1 1 2 1.54 1 103 Th. Phay 8 6 2 3 1.2 2 204 Th. Nhay 5 3 2 1 0.9 3 105 Th. Dom 10 5 5 3 1.42 0.3 0.76 2300 5 6 206 Th. Nieng 6 5 1 2 1 1 3 107 Th. Hone 13 9 4 3 2.16 3 3 208 T. Vone 10 5 5 2 1.43 5 109 Th. Bounleuth 10 4 6 3 1.35 5 5 20

10 X. Kane 6 3 3 2 0.67 2 1011 Th. Song 4 2 2 1 0.5 1 312 Th. Vane (a) 7 3 4 2 0.7 0.1 200 5 12 5013 X. Ya 6 4 2 3 1.14 2 10 3014 T. Pheng 4 2 2 1 0.8 4 1015 X. Lith 7 4 3 3 1 6 2016 X. Hack 10 5 5 3 0.67 0.52 2 5 2017 Th. Say (b) 8 3 5 4 1.08 2 3 2018 T. Thay 8 3 5 2 0.63 3 5 3019 Th. Toui 6 4 2 2 0.86 0.3 0.1 200 520 X. Da 3 1 2 2 0.1 3 2 2021 X. Seng 7 5 2 2 0.36 0.74 12 5 5022 Th. Pho 10 3 7 2 0.72 0.2 6 3 3023 Ch. Nou 8 2 6 2 0.96 1 3 2024 X. Manh 5 3 2 2 1.08 0.3 4 3 2025 X. Phanh 9 6 3 3 0.96 0.3 0.2 400 9 3 3026 X. Phane 10 5 5 3 2.04 0.33 2 2 2027 Th. Donh 6 3 3 2 1.56 0.3 5 3 3028 Th. Neng 5 2 3 2 0.63 0.28 3 4 3029 X. Phonh 10 4 6 4 1.4 4 2 2030 X. Houmphanh 7 3 4 2 0.7 0.3 5 3 3031 X. Le (b) 4 3 1 2 0.9 2 2032 X. Toui 7 3 4 2 0.9 7 4 3033 Ch. Oy 6 4 2 2 0.76 1 3 2034 X. Tha 7 4 3 4 0.9 7 3 1535 X. ha 9 6 3 2 1.44 8 2 3036 X. Pheng 4 2 2 2 0.63 0.5 2 1037 X. Vaht 8 4 4 2 1.62 3 2538 X. Vanh 5 3 2 2 2.38 3 2 1839 X. Manh 7 3 4 1 0.9 2 2140 T. Phanh 7 3 4 2 0.72 0.3 1 2 1341 X. Phou 7 4 3 2 2 2 5 2242 X. Vanht 5 3 2 3 0.6 0.3 11 3 5043 X. Veuy 5 3 2 2 0.3 0.2 500 6 344 X. Bay 8 4 4 2 1.32 1 2 2245 X. Le (a) 4 1 3 2 0.3 800 2 2 2046 Ch. Pha 7 3 4 2 0.2 247 Th. BounEuay 9 6 3 3 1.54 0.3 0.3 800 7 5 3348 X. Kong 8 4 4 2 0.4 0.3 2 5 1049 Th. SomVath 8 4 4 3 0.97 1 2 1150 Th.Veuy 6 3 3 2 0.48 0.4 2 151 T. la 7 4 3 2 0.72 1 1552 N. Monh 2 2 1 0.353 N. Nao 8 4 4 2 0.54 2 4 1054 Th. Nom 7 4 3 3 0.9 0.3 500 4 3 2555 X. Ath 10 4 6 4 0.3 0.2 250 2 456 N. Le 6 2 4 1 0.3 0.38 0.3 500 1 2 1557 Th. Intong 4 2 2 1 158 Th. Phanh 4 1 3 3 0.5 900

Total 398 207 191 131 50.8 8.15 3.26 7350 160 182 1068


- 52 -

Appendix 2. Village statistics sheet of Donna

Households Agriculture LivestockNo. Household Total Female Male Labor Paddy Shifting Teakwood Buffalo Pig Poultry

Name force (ha) (ton/ha) (ha) (ton/ha) (ha) tree1 X. Nhone 10 5 5 4 0.2 0.3 1 2 1 2000 8 25 122 X. Khang 6 3 3 2 0.4 0.4 1 2.43 X. Tha 8 5 3 2 1.5 3 0.9 2.4 7 24 T. Loun 12 3 9 3 1.1 3.2 1.2 4.2 0.3 200 45 T. Khamnha 7 2 5 3 0.7 1.5 0.9 1.5 2 46 X. Manh 8 3 5 2 0.6 1.8 0.6 1.8 2 17 T. Boun 10 4 6 4 0.9 2.4 0.8 3 0.3 1000 6 58 X. Bouth 9 5 4 2 0.4 12 0.8 0.9 3 29 X. Phong 6 3 3 2 0.5 2.1 0.4 0.9 0.1 300 1 1 4

10 X. Khong 11 7 4 4 2.2 3 0.9 2.1 1.-9 1100 8 5 1311 T. Thone 5 3 2 2 0.8 2.1 2 212 T. Souvanh 6 2 4 2 0.3 0.9 0.5 1.2 0.1 100 3 2 1013 T. ngoun 4 2 2 2 0.5 1.214 Th. Tha 10 6 4 4 0.3 0.6 0.8 3 515 Th. Thim 7 5 2 2 0.2 0.3 0.6 2 3 1 416 N. Si 1 1 017 Th. Pheng ( A ) 5 2 3 2 0.3 0.218 Th. Piene 4 2 2 2 0.9 3 1 219 X. Khamme 12 7 5 3 0.3 1.5 0.8 1.5 0.1 100 1 420 X. Chanh 11 5 6 4 1.5 2.5 0.9 2.8 3 4 821 X. Hieng 8 3 5 2 0.6 2 0.6 2.1 4 4 1122 Th. Sone 2 1 1 0.2 0.8 2 223 X. Koala 4 2 2 1 0.6 2 124 Th. Ten 3 2 1 2 0.6 1.2 225 X. Sing 8 3 5 3 0.7 1.5 0.7 1.8 1026 Th. Tha 6 3 3 2 0.7 2.4 0.4 1.9 4 2 727 X. kong 3 1 2 2 0.8 2.728 Th. Thone 7 5 2 2 0.4 1.2 0.4 1.5 6 1 529 Th. Pheng ( B ) 5 3 2 1 0.2 0.9 1.2 3.6 3 1 230 X. Thi 9 5 4 2 0.9 2.1 0.9 2 5 4 1231 X. Veuy 4 2 2 2 0.4 1.5 0.8 1.8 9 4 1832 X. Sene 8 4 4 2 0.6 1.5 0.1 100 233 Th. Ka 8 5 3 2 0.2 0.3 0.9 2.7 0.1 50 1 2 434 Th. Bounka 11 8 3 3 0.5 0.9 0.8 3.9 5 235 X. He 2 1 1 2 0.4 0.736 Th. Kong 5 2 3 2 0.3 0.7 0.4 0.9 237 Th. Thongsouk 5 3 2 2 0.2 0.539 X. Kio 5 3 2 2 0.3 0.640 Th. Vat 8 4 4 4 0.5 1.8 0.9 3.6 1 3 441 Th. La ( A ) 9 4 5 3 0.7 2.7 0.5 1.5 0.3 120 5 1 242 Th. La ( B ) 9 5 4 2 1 1.8 1.9 3 0.3 670 5 3 343 T. Pheng 5 2 3 1 0.3 0.7 344 Th. Nith 4 1 3 2 0.2 0.745 X. Kham 8 4 4 3 0.8 1.846 Th. Vong 7 2 5 2 0.2 0.9 0.3 1.548 Th. Loun 5 2 3 2 0.8 1.2

TOTAL = 310 155 155 104 19.7 1.85 29.8 1.93 2.7 5740 109 88 142X: Xieng, T: Thit, Th: Thao, N: Nang, Ch: Chane


- 53 -

Appendix 3. Interview results of selected men in Phonsavang

Interviewees

Young 1 : Xieng Vieng (20) Middle 1 : Chan Pha (36) Elder 1 :

Young 2 : Thoui (25) Middle 2 : Xieng Tha (43) Elder 2 :

Young 3 : Thit phanh (25) Middle 3 : Xieng pho (40) Elder 3 :

Q1 If money were available, what would you want to do best?

A1 Young (1: to construct fish pond, to raise livestock. 2: to construct fish pond, to raise livestock, to

get paddy. 3: to raise livestock, to get irrigated paddy)

Middle (1: to get paddy, to raise buffaloes, to buy a thresher and a tractor. 2: to build a new house,

to get paddy. 3: to get irrigated paddy)

Elder (to get paddy, to construct fish pond, to raise buffaloes, to plant teakwood, to build new

house)

Q2 How is your village? (good, average, bad; why?)

A2 Young (1: good; solidarity, help each other. 2: good; well understanding of each villagers, village

leader is good person. 3: good; solidarity, friendly)

Middle (1: average. 2: good; close to main road - easy to access to market and to exchange things.

3: good; close to main road - easy to access to market and to exchange things)

Elder (good; close to main road - easy to access to market and hospital, easy to sell things)

Q3 If you were a village leader, what would you like to do?

A3 Young (1: to construct irrigation and get paddy field, to improve public facilities. 2: to become model

village. 3: to become model village, to help each other)

Middle (1: to strengthen solidarity, to help each other, to improve school, hospital and temple. 2: to

strengthen solidarity, to help each other, to improve school, hospital and temple. 3: to

produce enough rice)

Elder

Q4 What is your role in your family?

A4 Young (1: rice farming activities, weaving. 2: rice farming activities. 3: rice farming activities)

Middle (1: rice farming activities, shop keeping. 2: rice farming activities. 3: rice farming activities,

raising livestock)

Elder


- 54 -

Appendix 4. Interview results of selected women in Phonsavang

Interviewees

Young 1 : Oune (18) Middle 1 : Wat (41) Elder 1 : Chan (47)

Young 2 : Hong Fa (16) Middle 2 : Bat (26) Elder 2 : Bona Si (55)

Young 3 : Song (18) Middle 3 : Khao (26) Elder 3 : Hong (90)


A1 Young (1: to construct fish pond, weaving. 2: to raise livestock, weaving. 3: to get paddy field)

Middle (1: to raise livestock, weaving. 2: to raise livestock, weaving. 3: to raise livestock, weaving)

Elder (1: to raise livestock, weaving. 2: to plant teakwood. 3: to buy clothes for her children and

grandchildren)


A2 Young (1: good; solidarity, help each other. 2: good; solidarity, help each other. 3: good; solidarity)

Middle (1: good; solidarity, help each other. 2: good; solidarity, help each other. 3: good; solidarity,

help each other)

Elder (1: good; solidarity, village leader is good person. 2: good; solidarity, help each other. 3:

good; close to main road - easy to sell things)


A3 Young (1: to develop irrigation and paddy, to promote raising livestock and weaving. 2: to develop

irrigation and paddy, to promote weaving. 3: to construct irrigation)

Middle (1: to develop irrigation and paddy. 2: to develop irrigation and paddy, to introduce credit

system, to promote raising livestock and weaving. 3: to develop irrigation and paddy, to

make toilet, to construct water supply facility)

Elder (1: to construct irrigation and paddy. 2: to construct irrigation and paddy)


A4 Young (1: rice farming activities. 2: rice farming activities. 3: rice farming activities)

Middle (1: rice farming activities, raising livestock, weaving. 2: rice farming activities, weaving. 3:

rice farming activities, raising livestock, weaving)

Elder (1: rice farming activities, keeping teakwood. 2: raising livestock, keeping the vegetable

garden. 3: weaving, taking care of grandchildren)


- 55 -

Appendix 5. Interview results of selected men in Donna

Interviewees

Young 1 : Xieng Kham (26) Middle 1 : Thit Van (41) Elder 1 : Xieng Bouth (59)

Young 2 : Sack (29) Middle 2 : Xieng Nhon (35) Elder 2 : Xieng Khong (53)

Young 3 : Pian (29) Middle 3 : Thit Loun (40) Elder 3 : Xieng Tha (61)


A1 Young (1: to construct fish pond, to raise livestock, to plant trees, to build new house. 2: to get

paddy. 3: to get paddy)

Middle (1: to get paddy, to construct fish pond, to build new house. 2: to raise livestock, to get

paddy field. 3: to get paddy field, to save money in bank)

Elder (1: to get paddy. 2: to get paddy, to run grocery. 3: to get paddy, to save money in bank)


A2 Young (1: good; close to main road - easy to sell things. 2: good; but only problem is far away to

draw water. 3: average)

Middle (1: average. 2: good; close to main road - easy to sell things and to go to school for children.

3: good; close to main road - easy to go to school and hospital, and people are easy to

come selling things.)

Elder (1: good; close to saw mill - easy to sell things to worker of saw mill. 2: good; close to main

road - easy to sell and exchange things. 3: good; close to main road - easy to sell and

exchange things and to go to hospital)


A3 Young (1: to improve water supply, school and hospital. 2: to stop shifting cultivation and develop

paddy. 3: to improve water supply, electricity, school and hospital)

Middle (1: to develop irrigated paddy, to construct hospital, school and water supply facility, to

supply electricity, to improve public places. 2: to introduce credit system, to promote raising

livestock, to develop paddy, to construct water supply facility, school and hospital. 3: to

introduce credit system, to develop irrigated paddy, to construct water supply facility)

Elder (1: to develop irrigated paddy, no evil spirit in the village, every children go to school. 2: to

develop irrigated paddy. 3: to develop irrigated paddy)


A4 Young (1: rice farming activities. 2: rice farming activities. 3: rice farming activities)

Middle (1: rice farming activities, raising livestock. 2: rice farming activities, raising livestock. 3: rice

farming activities, raising livestock)

Elder (1: rice farming activities. 2: rice farming activities. 3: rice farming activities)


- 56 -

Appendix 6. Interview results of selected women in Donna

Interviewees

Young 1 : Pan (18) Middle 1 : Kham (37) Elder 1 : Khong Ma (43)

Young 2 : Suck (18) Middle 2 : Khuang (40) Elder 2 : Suck (42)

Young 3 : Choun (18) Middle 3 : Hong (32) Elder 3 : Phan (47)


A1 Young (1: to get vegetable field more, weaving. 2: to raise livestock, to get vegetable field more,

weaving. 3: to raise livestock)

Middle (1: to raise livestock. 2: to raise livestock, weaving. 3: to raise livestock, weaving)

Elder (1: to raise livestock. 2: to raise livestock, weaving. 3: to raise livestock)


A2 Young (1: good; solidarity, help working each other. 2: good; no discord in the village, help each

other. 3: good; no problem in the village, help working each other)

Middle (1: good; solidarity, close to road. 2: good; solidarity, close to road. 3: good; solidarity)

Elder (1: good; solidarity, no discord and help each other. 2: good; help each other, cooperation

with other villages. 3: good; solidarity, no discord and help each other)


A3 Young (1: to construct water supply facility and school. 2: to develop irrigated paddy, to construct

water supply. 3: to develop irrigated paddy field, to construct water supply facility, hospital

and school)

Middle (1: to supply electricity, to construct water supply facility. 2: to construct water supply

facility, to develop irrigated paddy. 3: to construct water supply facility, to develop irrigated

paddy)

Elder (1: to develop paddy, to promote raising livestock and growing vegetables. 2: to develop

irrigated paddy, to construct education and culture institutions. 3: to construct water supply

facility and fish pond, to promote raising livestock)


A4 Young (1: weaving. 2: weaving. 3: weaving)

Middle (1: rice farming activities. 2: rice farming activities. 3: rice farming activities)

Elder (1: weaving. 2: rice farming activities, weaving, weaving, taking care of children. 3:

weaving, gathering forest products)

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