Farm households' rice diversity management in Luangprabang province, Lao P.D.R.

The study was conducted in Hot-kham Village in Luangprabang District and Pakpa Village in Pak-Ou District in Luangprabang, Province, Lao P.D.R. The general objective of the study was to determine the management of rice diversity among the farming households in the study sites. A total of 117 respondents from the two villages were chosen based on their contribution to the rice production within the province. Spearman rank correlation and eta correlation analysis were employed to determine the significant factors related to seed and variety management and rice diversity. There were important improvements in the living standard of farmers between 2000 and 2009. It resulted from various programs of rural infrastructures and also from changes in income activities. These included crop diversification as well as alcohol production, gardening and animal husbandry in Hat-kham. However, rice production remained the important source of livelihood in the village. The changes in farming activities resulted in mitigation of agronomic problems of rice plots, thereby favoring the farmers' use of modern varieties (MVs) over the traditional ones (TVs). The farmers' objective in rice growing, the service of formal seed system, and the provision of agro-support services were emphasized much toward attaining increase in productivity, thereby favoring the use of MVs since they meet better the demands of productivity increase. In addition, responses to the catastrophic flood led to the adoption of MVs because seeds of preferred varieties were not available. This revealed the problems on farmers' access to the rice seed system. Between 2001 and 2009, the total number of rice cultivars, especially the TVs decreased in Pak-pa. The distribution of the MVs became more wide spread but the TVs narrowed down. At the household level, the mean total number of varieties also decreased. This resulted mainly from the reduction in the number of TVs, though this did not change for winter rice in Hat-kham. The change in the total area abundance of rice growing households was not significant. However, the share of MV area increased, but TV decreased. Exception was found in the Hat-kham, where in summer rice season, the farmers still maintained the TVs for deep-water rice fields. Seed source from farmers remained the factor that influenced variety richness and area abundance in both study areas and in both rice seasons of the year. During 2000-2009, seed exchanges increased in the two study areas. However, participation of the seed company increased. Therefore recommendations were made on improvement of local seed system and seed policy to make seeds of preferred varieties accessible to the farmers. Other recommendations were made on building awareness on value of rice diversity and promotion of variety variability among the farmers using community-based initiatives. Further research on community arrangement on adding value to TVs and on development of participatory conservation schemes for demonstration were also suggested.