An introduction to the Lao Upland Rural Advisory Service (Phase II) for our donor, the Swiss Development Agency

1. LURAS
Lao Upland Rural Advisory Service

2. Background
 The rural economy of Laos is undergoing a transition
from subsistence to commercial agriculture.
 The positive side of this transition includes new job
opportunities, more productive technology and cash
incomes.

3. Background
 The negative side of this transition includes the breakdown
of traditional systems for managing natural resources,
environmental degradation, the impact on health of using
pesticides, and growing debt.

4. Background
 Better services will help
small farmers cope with the
transition
 Past projects such as LEAP
helped to develop Govt
capacity for service
delivery, but faced
challenges in terms of the
efficiency and sustainability
 New approaches are needed!

5. Welcome to Xieng Khouang!

6. Welcome to the maize boom

7. Welcome to the toxic landscape

8. The landscape is literally toxic

9. Also ecologically toxic

10. And socially toxic

11. Rethinking extension
 In the past, the goal of rural advisory services has been:
 promote technology that increases farm productivity
 develop value chains that add value to farm produce
 Many will say that the private sector can do this better
than government
 But new technology and markets are creating new
problems. There are a wide range of negative impacts
associated with agricultural commercialisation.
 Mitigation has become as important as promotion.
 We cannot expect the private sector or individual farmers
to take care of these problems.

12. Delivering public goods
 There is a strong rationale in Laos for public sector
extension to focus on public goods:
 Protecting natural resources from degradation
 Protecting health of producers and consumers
 Protecting livelihoods of vulnerable social groups
 And improving resilience in the face of change
 This has influenced the emerging strategy of LURAS

13. Welcome to Green Extension

14. What is GE all about?
 Green extension is a type of rural advisory service which supports the
scaling up of sustainable agriculture by facilitating socio-ecological learning
processes with farmers
 Green Extension is a service can be provided by a range of differing
organisations: government departments, NGOs, private enterprises, and by
farmer groups. Everybody can contribute!
 Green Extension is not a single approach or blueprint for achieving
sustainability; it includes a range of methods to promote various types of
content
 Green Extension supports farmers in analysing local problems and
opportunities, and testing alternative practices under local conditions.

15. Example: Content
 Agroforestry has a number of
advantages for upland Laos:
 Protect soils and biodiversity:
good for mountain areas
 Products with high value & low
volume: good for remote areas
 Can evolve from traditional
practices. eg. swidden, NTFPs
 Regional demand for these
products is strong
 Opportunities exist for small
farmers to move up value chain

16. Example: Methodology
 Farmer to Farmer learning
(F2F) has proven to be very
successful because:
 Fewer language barriers, less
propaganda and a higher trust
compared to training by Govt.
 Techniques already tested
locally are more likely to be
relevant and feasible for other
farmers.
 More holistic learning: not just
techniques but also labour
requirements, sources of inputs,
market prices etc.

17. A few other things...

18. Reality check
 The context of a project, supported by foreign donors and
advisors, is profoundly different from that of a service funded
and managed by government
 Green extension is unlikely to be institutionalised in Laos due
to a number of governance factors incl. policy goals, economic
system, political structure
 But we can deliver benefits to thousands of farm families
during the course of the project
 And sow seeds that will contribute to longer term changes in
policy and practice.

19. The key to success...?
 A Youth Engagement Strategy (YES) is now
a priority for LURAS.
 Unless young people can find attractive
jobs in rural areas, they will leave their
villages.
 And if they leave, we cannot expect
initiatives such as agroforestry coffee to
be sustained.
 YES involves making connections between
a) improvements in agricultural production
and processing and
b) opportunities for youth employment and
empowerment.

20. Thank You