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
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
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
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
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 n
i crease 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.
-1-
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
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
Date
Place
Survey items
(Wed)
Phonsavang
Moving to survey site, exchange greetings to
Phonsavang village and Donna village leaders
(Thu)
Phonsavang
Interviewing village leaders and selected groups,
Making a land use map
(Fri)
Phonsavang
Interviewing household, Making a land use map
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)
1
Feb.28
2
29
3
Mar.1
4
Coming back to Xay
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
-2-
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
#
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
each of
village;
choose
five
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
Figure I-1
farmers
#
Making the Phonsavang village
map with villagers
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
Figure I-2 Mental map drawing
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]
-3-
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study R eport
II. Geographical features of the study area
II-1. Geographical location
0
500
INDIA
1000
Km
25°
CHINA
20°
MYANMA
R
LAOS
THAILAND
15°
CAMBODIA
VIETNAM
10°
5°
MALAYSIA
95°
100°
105°
110°
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.
-4-
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study R eport
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
-5-
Figure II-3 Limestone cave in Phonsavang
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study R eport
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
300
30
200
20
100
10
0
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Month
8
Note: Data is 2 years average from 1994 to 1995 at Houn district.
Data source: UNDP Laos Udomxay project office
Annual mean temperature: 23.9 (drgrees)
Annual amount of precipitation: 1264.1 (mm)
Annual amount of evapolation: 798.9 (mm)
9
10
11
12
Precipitation
Evapolation
Temperature
Figure II-4 Seasonal changes in climatic condition at Houn district
-6-
Temperature (degrees)
Precipitation and Evapolation (mm)
the 20º north latitude and also diurnal temperature variation because of the highland.
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
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
Route 2
Sawmill
accommodations
”Hong Luai”
Houn
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
1994
Nam Mui
Stream
1988
southwest from Xay. Then the name of village also
1993
changed into Phonsavang.
The Donna villagers previously lived a few
1975
Phonsavang
Pakbeng
kilometres south of the Nam Beng river and the
Nam Beng River
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
The middle of 1970s
0
1
Donna
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
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.
-7-
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
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.
Figure III-2 Oudomxana sawmill
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)
Items
Village
Total
Families
LL
LT
LS
Total
Population
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.
-8-
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
Table III-2 Village organisation of study area
Title
Role
Sex
The number of person
Phonsavang
Donna
1
1
1
1
1
1
General (Chief)
Socio-economic (Deputy)
Culture, Education and Agriculture (Deputy)
male
male
male
Elder Union
Problem solving
both
2
2
Youth Union
Problem solving
both
3
3
female
female
1
1
1
1
men
2
4
-
1
-
Village
Administration
Women’s Union
Defence-order
committee
Doctor
Problem solving about taking care children
Guest receiving
Patrol the village
Crime prevention
Health and Primary health care management
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
Loy Ka-thong (Buddhism)
Ceremony of casting symbolic lantern boats to float away sin
Bun Khong Khao (Animism)
Hold it only in case of a good harvest, Offer rice to temple
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
Oct.
Nov.
(May)
-9-
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
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
Figure III-3 Village wooden pagoda
at Phonsavang
are based on Buddhism (Table III-3).
- 10 -
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
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
Small Vegetable Gardens
Nam Beng River
Village Boat place
Grave yard
20
Orchard & Trees
Orchard & Trees
Orchard & Trees
20
S
19
19
Public
meeting
place
Temple
S
18
4,12
S
S
S
N
S
17
5
17
11
10
12
14
Rock
18
13 Spring
Village Clinic
S
15
M
2,14
Houn
1
2
3
4
5
Primary School
3,16
8,15
Pakbeng, Donna
Route 2
6
7
6,7,9,1
3
M
T
10
1,11
squatter houses
D: Drugstore
S: Sawmill worker’s house
Grocery
Teakwood (1 year)
M: Motorbike
1-20: Owner signs of Teakwood
Thresher
Teakwood (3 years)
House
Teakwood (8 years)
T: Dump Truck
Village wooden Pagoda
Figure III-4 Land use map of inner Phonsavang
- 11 -
Not to scale
Sawmill
8
16
D
M
9
Play Ground
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
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.
Nam Mui Stream
7
a
Orchard & Trees
b
Orchard & Trees
Ba
6
Temple
B
5
S
L
B
N
L
2
L
BLS 5
Public meeting
place
4
3
6
L
B
B
Sawmill
Lumberyard
2
L
L
B
c
1
L
7B
Owned by
Phonsavan
villager
Bb
4B
B
L
Route 2
Houn, Phonsavang
SS1Bc
1-7: Owner No. of Fish Pond
Sawmill worker
accommodations
3B
Pakbeng, Oudom
Grave yard
of Oudom
village
Grocery
a-c: Owner No. of Teakwood
Sawmill
Not to scale
Village wooden Pagoda
B: Boat
L: Lao Thong
S:
Sawmill
house
worker’ s
House
Fish Pond
Thresher
Teakwood (3 years)
Well
Figure III-5 Land use map of inner Donna
- 12 -
Electricity
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
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 (i) Phonsavang （taken at the hill of
settlement can be found around the road. In the case of
sawmill）
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
(ii) Donna (taken at the centre of
village)
Figure III-6 The village landscapes
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
- 13 -
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
made of Burmese ebony (Pterocarpus macrocarpus)
Hunting and fishing goods
Bananas in the chaff
Fire place
Firewood
“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
and
fishing
tools,
bedclothes,
Kitchen
Rice
baskets,
Terrace
(A)
Bed room (A)
(for daughter)
hunting
Garlic
chili
tablewares and kitchen utensils. Tablewares and
kitchen utensils are kept at Bed room (A). Cooking
spaces are kitchen and Terrace (A) and these are
Bed room (B)
(for parents)
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
Sitting area
Windows
(boarded up)
Mattress
(for son)
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
Terrace
(B)
1m
(i) Plain figure of house
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
(ii) House overview
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) Wooden roof
III-4 are used in the study area. Although expensive
Figure III-7 Typical house in study site
materials are durable and easy to maintain, it does not
(A house of Mr. Xieng Veuy in Donna)
- 14 -
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
Table III-4 The characteristics of building materials
Items
Price
Maintenance
Heat
insulating
Air
permeability
Labour for
construction
Thatch
Cheap
Every 2 years
Bad
Very good
much
Materials
Roof
Wall
Tin
Expensive
If necessary
Good
Bad
Less
Wood
Ordinary
Broken part only
Ordinary
Good
Very much
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
Mortar finished
Very expensive
Broken part only
Very good
Bad
much
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
- 15 -
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
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 Figure III-8 Weaving under the house
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 Figure III-9 Graveyard in Phonsavang
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
- 16 -
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
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
Sphere of Drawing *
Own House
Sawmill
Thresher
Donna's Well
Village Clinic
School
Public Meeting Place
Donna Temple
Phonsavang Temple
Nam Mui River
Nam Beng River
Phonsavang's Spring
Route 2
Landmark
Men
Phonsavang
Women
Men
Donna
Women
Y1
Y2
Y3
M1
M2
M3
O1
O2
O3
Y1
Y2
Y3
M1
M2
M3
O1
O2
O3
Y1
Y2
Y3
M1
M2
M3
O1
O2
O3
Y1
Y2
Y3
M1
M2
M3
O1
O2
O3
W
M
N
M
M
M
M
W
M
M
M
M
N
N
N
M
M
M
W
W
W
M
M
M
M
M
M
W
W
W
W
W
W
W
W
W
Other Remarkable Elements
All neighboring villages position
His rice field position
Old village positions
Old village positions
Mountains and sun
Forest and fruits field
Nam Mui village position
Banana field
Direction of sunrise and sunset
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 village
N (Narrow range): Drawing the their village center only
- 17 -
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
Temple
Nam Beng river
Route 2
Nam Beng river
Meeting place
Temple
path
Old village
Spring
Village
Old village
Her house
Sawmill
Spring
School
Sawmill
Route 2
Donna village
(ii) Older man in Phonsavang
(I) Middle-aged woman in Phonsavang
Spring
Koa Nam Mao
village
Route 2
Route 2
Don Keo
village
Nam Beng
river
Spring
Temple
Sawmill
Threshe
His house
Wells
Village
Threshe
r
Sawmill
Phonsavang
Village
Nam Mao river
Field
Nam Mui river
Forest
Donna village
Forest
(iv) Young man in Donna
(iii) Young man in Phonsavang
Figure III-10 Mental Maps of Villagers
- 18 -
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
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
Figure V-1 Thresher
owner in Donna who earns as much as 200,000 kip (=US$217).
The price of a boat engine is between
Table V-1 Personal properties in the study area
100,000 kip (=US$109) and 160,000 kip
(=US$174) second-hand. It depends on
Items
Village
Phonsavang
Donna
HP and the condition of the engine. The
Car (ISUZU Dump truck)
1
-
boat engine owners consume more than
Motorbike (HONDA Dream)
2
-
Boat engine
-
13
Thresher
4
3
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
- 19 -
Figure V-2 The Nam Beng river
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
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
Figure V-3 The spring in
draw drinking water to the Phonsavang village’s spring.
Phonsavang
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.
Figure V-4 Wells in Donna
Table V-2 Water supply situation of study area
Items
For drinking
Village
Phonsavang
Donna
Spring
Spring
For washing tableware
For laundry
For bathing
Spring
Spring
Spring
Nam Beng
Nam Beng River
River
Wells
Wells
Spring
Spring
Wells
Nam Beng
River
Note: in the order of frequency in use
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
- 20 -
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
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
(Figure
the
Boribun
V-5)
which
primary
is
school
located
in
Phonsavang. School age depends on
household economy situations. Some
children can enter school at six years
Figure V-5 Boribun primary school at Phonsavang
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
- 21 -
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
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
Figure V-6 Phonsavang temple
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.
Figure V-7 Phonsavang’s public
meeting place
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
Figure V-9 Wooden Boat under
drives.
Both villages have public transportation services, but
making
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 Figure V-8 The road condition of the
no taxis, villagers negotiate with passing cars about the
Route 2
- 22 -
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
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.
- 23 -
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
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
(unit)
Foods
Sea-soni
ngs
Drinks
Cig.
Daily
goods
Pre cooked noodles “mi wai-wai”
Dry noodles
Tinned fish
Chemical seasoning
Fish sauce
Pepper
Salt
Shrimp paste condiment “kapi”
Factory made sticky rice liquor “lao-lao”
Home made sticky rice liquor “lao-lao”
Drinking water
Energy drink “krathinden”
Soft drink
Laotian cigarette “A-den”
Laotian cigarette “dok -mai-den”
Chinese cigarette
Washing powder
Washing powder
Toothpaste
Soap “Lux”
Body powder
Toothbrush
Washing sponge for dish
Dry battery (Large size)
Torch
Candle
Ball-point pen
Tin
bag
Bottle
12kg
Bottle
Bottle
Bottle
Bottle
Bottle
Box
Bag
Tube
Matches
Box
Washing brush
Comb
Thread for sewing machine
Mirror (Medium/Small)
Rubber sandal
Nails
Kerosene
Kg
Litre
Country
Thailand
Thailand
Thailand
Thailand
Thailand
Laos
Laos
Thailand
Laos
Laos
Laos
Thailand
Thailand
Laos
Laos
China
Thailand
Thailand
Thailand
Thailand
Thailand
Thailand
Thailand
China
China
China
Thailand
Thailand
China
Thailand
Thailand
Thailand
Thailand
Thailand
Thailand
?
Study Area
(kip)
200
250
250
1,300
1,000
50
1,500
300
1,500
600
300
500
150
500
300
100
200
50
300
300
300
200
50
100
600
100
100
25
200
150
300
400/300
1,300
1,000
400
Vientiane
(kip)
200
200
350
1,300
900
600
250
700
600/litre
300
600
150
400
300
300
50
350
300
250
200
50
100
1,000
150
150
50
200
200
300
1,500
800
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
- 24 -
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
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.
Figure V-10 Lao Theung people sell
their things at grocery in
Phonsavang
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.
- 25 -
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
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.
- 26 -
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
Silk
Weaving
and its
materials
Cotton
Upland
rice
Rice
Lowland
rice
Black
sesame
Cash crop
White
sesame
Tobacco
Corn
Banana
Sugarcane
Teakwood
Vegetables,
fruits and
others
Bamboo
Fruits
Lettuce
Cabbage
’50
Note: Height of bar shows a quantity of crops.
Phonsavang
’60
’70
’80
Phonsavang settled
to present position.
Donna
’90
Donna settled to
present position.
Figure VI-1 The changes of economic activities in Phonsavang village
- 27 -
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
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.
Table VI-2 Cropping calendar
Month
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Upland rice, corn, cotton
slashing
burning (1day)
fencing & cleaning
sowing (1day)
weeding
harvest
transporting to house
Lowland rice
seedling
ploughing
transplanting a seedling
harvest
transporting to house
Vegetable harvest
tomato, chilli
cassava
highland vegetables*
*cabbage, lettuce, a kind of Chinese cabbage and a kind of saltgreen
8
9
10
11
12
VI-3. Farming activities
Rice farming
The size of the paddy
fields in Phonsavang is larger than those
Donna
in Donna (Figure VI-2, Table VI-3 and
Phonsavang
also see Appendix 1 and 2). With respect
0
to the shifting cultivation fields, however,
Donna’s are much larger. Although the
0.2
Paddy
0.4
0.6
0.8
Ratio
Shifting cultivation field
Figure VI-2 The ratio of rice fields in study area
types of rice field in the two villages is
- 28 -
1
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
Table VI-3 Rice Fields in study area (1995)
Paddy field
Items
Village
Shifting cultivation fields*
Total Rice Fields
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.
different, the size of total field per family is
almost the same. The area of shifting
Donna
cultivation fields changes every year. If the
Phonsavang
total area for shifting cultivation fields is
calculated simply, it must increase the area
four times so that they have a system of
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
Ratio
Shifting cultivation field only
Nothing
Paddy field only
Both
Figure VI-3 The holding ratio of rice fields
year cultivation with a fallow period of four
years. Thus the area of shifting cultivation
fields of Phonsavang becomes 32.8 ha
Donna
Poverty line
(8.2 ha X 4) and that of Donna becomes
119.2 ha (29.8 ha X 4) as a result of
Phonsavang
calculation.
0
As shown in Figure II-2, there are
mountains on both sides of villages, and
the
villagers
developing
have
the
less
paddy
Paddy Field Only
Shifting Cultivation Field Only
Both
Figure VI-4 The average area per capita of rice
farming fields depending on type of
farming
area.
potential
fields
0.05
0.1
0.15
0.2
0.25
Rice farming area per capita (ha/person)
for
Comparing to the two villages, Donna
0.30
seems to have more flatlands but they are
Upland rice dominant
not close to the living area. In fact, Donna
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
Shifting cultivation field
(Upland rice) [ha/person]
from the Nam Mao and developed paddy
Donna
0.20
Lowland rice dominant
had constructed their own irrigation canals
Phonsavang
0.10
abandoned paddy fields naturally changed
into coppices.
0.00
The two villages differ widely in that
Donna’s
dominant
system
is
0.00
0.10
0.20
0.30
Paddy field (Lowland rice) [ha/person]
shifting
cultivation whereas Phonsavang’s is paddy Figure VI-5 A relationship of average size per capita
between paddy fields and shifting cultivation fields
cultivation. Also the family holding ratio of
- 29 -
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
rice fields are quite different in both villages.
The figures which concern the rice farming
Shifting cultivation field
(Upland rice)
Paddy field
(Lowland rice)
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
A bar indicates the
holding size of rice
farming field of one
family.
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
2.5
(ha)
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
(ha)
(i) Phonsavang
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,
2.5
(ha)
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
(ha)
(ii) Donna
Figure VI-6 Rice farming of study area
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
- 30 -
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
cultivation
fields.
Because
it
is
not
0
The National Road No.2
Houn
necessary for the families which hold wider
paddy to do heavy labour of shifting
cultivation, they tend to stop it. Shifting
Donna
1
km
Phonsavang
Nam Mui
Stream
cultivation plays a role of making up for the
PS
Pakbeng
crop shortage of paddy field. Therefore, the
size of shifting cultivation fields is decreased
PS
Nam Beng River
Nam Mao
Stream
PS
in inverse proportion to increasing the
DN
paddy fields.
PS
PS
In Donna, the relation between the shifting
PS
cultivation area and paddy is not simple.
PS
DN
DN
Villagers who hold wide paddy fields hold
DN
the wide shifting cultivation fields, and the
PS
area of shifting cultivation fields of the
Shifting cultivation fields
PS : Owned by Phonsavang
paddy dominant families is almost the same
Paddy fields
DN: Owned by Donna
River or stream
as the shifting cultivation dominant families
(Figure VI-6 (ii)). The family holding size of
shifting cultivation fields do not change with
Irrigation canal
Note: This map was made by author’ s fields survey.
This is not accurate at scale and area.
Figure VI-7 Outline location of rice farming fields.
the size of holding paddy fields. To get more
Table VI-4 Types of Forest lands
Types
Protection forests
“Pa hovang-ham”
Conservation
forests
“Pa sa-nguan”
Production forests
“Pa som-sai”
Purposes
i)
ii)
iii)
iv)
v)
vi)
Protection of water resource
Protection against soil erosion
Protection of steep slopes
National strategic defence areas
Protection against natural disasters
Protection environment and others
Preservation of life, nature and others (which
hold special value for the environment,
education and culture)
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
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.
Forbidden things
i) Cutting any trees
ii) Collecting any forest produces
iii) Farming activities
i)
ii)
iii)
iv)
Cutting any trees
Collecting any forest produces
Farming activities
Hunting
Cutting trees excepting using for
firewood, building houses, making
boats (All activities must obtain
permission of authority such as
MAF*, province, district or village. )
*MAF: The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
Note: This table was made by referred to the Prime Minister’s Decree No. 99/PM.
- 31 -
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
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
(i) shifting cultivation fields Landscape
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 (ii) The fallow period of a year
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, (iii) The fallow period of 3 years
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.
(iv) The fallow period of 4 years
In 1995, these forest classifications were introduced
Figure VI-8 Shifting cultivation fields
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.
- 32 -
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
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
(i) Paddy field
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
Nam Mao
in 1986, he uses the field which is alloted by
village administration every year.
Canal
Shifting cultivation farmers leave big trees,
hard trees and stumps as their standards of
(ii) Irrigation canal
Figure VI-9 Landscape of Paddy and canal
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.
- 33 -
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
The farming tools for doing
paddy
cultivation
traditional
sickle,
are
the
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,
(i) Buffalo plough
Figure VI-10 Farming tools using in paddy field
and also see Appendix 1 and 2). The
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
The number of family
paddy families which do not possess any
(ii) Buffalo rake
10
Phonsavang
8
Donna
6
4
2
0
<.05
without using buffalo, however ploughing
.05<.1 .1<.15 .15<.2 .2<.25 .25<
The area of paddy fields per person
(ha/person)
an area of more than 0.15 ha/person
(=38.7 X 38.7 m2/person) without using
Figure VI-11 The number of paddy cultivation
buffalo require very hard labour. Therefore,
families which do not possess any buffalo
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.
- 34 -
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
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
Items
Village
Pigs
Poultry
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
- 35 -
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
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 Figure VI-12
in a shorter time. The price was also very attractive and many families
Teakwood plantation
recently started planting it.
(1 year) and planter
Table VI-7 Teakwood production in study area
items Area The number The number of
Per
village
(ha)
of trees
planting families
family
Phonsavang 3.26
7,350
12
127
Donna
Other farming activities
2.7
5,740
11
125
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
Maximum water level
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
Figure VI-13 A change in the water
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-14 Cutting the tobacco leaves
- 36 -
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
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
Figure VI-15 Distilling into sticky rice
liquor “Lao-lao”
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
Figure VI-16
water. They have two method of fishing; i) casting a
Fishing in the Nam Beng
river
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
Insert into
stock
Hitch rubber threads
round arrow
into the water with water glasses “Na-kak ” to shoot a
fish by use of a water-shooter “Na-nying-pa” (Figure
rubber threads
VI-17). The water shooter which is made of wood is very Figure VI-17 Water-shooter
“Na-nying-pa”
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-18 Fish pond in Donna
- 37 -
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
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
Figure VI-19 Cutting the raw cotton
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.
- 38 -
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
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).
- 39 -
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
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
- 40 -
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
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.
- 41 -
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
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
- 42 -
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
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
Village
Phonsavang
Donna
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.
- 43 -
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
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.
- 44 -
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
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,
- 45 -
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
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
- 46 -
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
village structure and try to understand their hidden consciousness from history, land use or
interview.
- 47 -
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
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.
- 47 -
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
References
#
AJIKI, K. and MIYAGI, T. (1992): Philippines ni okeru Mangrove-rin kaihatu to Youshoku-ike
no kakudai ni tsuite (On Clearance of Mangrove Forest and Expansion of Fish pond in the
Philippines), Jinbun Chili (Human Geography), 44-5, pp.76-89．(Japanese)
#
AOYAMA, T. (1995): Laos -Indoshina kansyo kokka no syozou (Laos -Indochina buffer
state), Chuo-koron-sha (Chukou-shinsho 1245), 236p. (Japanese)
#
CHAZÉE, L. (1993): Les Pratiques D’essartage au Laos les Systemes Actuels, translated
by Dirk Van Gansberghe (1993): Shifting Cultivation Practices in Laos -Present Systems
and Their Future-, UNDP/UNCDF LAO/89/029 - LAO/89/C03 Report, Vientiane, 34p.
#
Committee for the Planning and Cooperation, National Statistical Centre (1995):
1975-1995 Basic Statistics about the socio-economic development in the Lao P.D.R., The
National Statistical Centre, Vientiane, 172p.
#
EVENSON, J. P. (1992): Slash and Burn Agriculture: The Continuing Dilemma,
UNDP/DESD LAO/92/017 Report, Vientiane, 11p.
#
EVENSON, J. P. (1993): Approaches to Slash and Burn Limitation (A Review), UNDP/DESD
LAO/92/017 Report, Vientiane, 35 p.
#
FUKUI, K. (1994): Laos no yakihata chosa (Shifting cultivation survey in Laos),
Unpublished JICA document, Tokyo, 39p. (Japanese)
#
Gould, P. and White, R. (1974): Mental Maps. Penguin, London, 204p.
#
HORI H. (1996): Mekon-Gawa: Kaihatu to Kankyo (The Mekong: The development and its
environmental effects), Kokon-Shoin Publishing, Tokyo, 476p. (Japanese)
#
JOHNSTON, R. J. (ed.) (1994): The Dictionary of Human Geography (Third ed.). Blackwell,
Oxford, 724p.
#
Japanese Government Working group (The Working for Basic Data Collection of Foreign
Agricultural Development in 1993) (1993): Laos chosa hokoku-syo (The study report of
Laos), Noyochi-seibi-kodan (Japan Agriculture Land development Agency), 152p.
(Japanese)
#
KATSUMATA, M. (1990): Shokuryo-seisan to kankyo (Food production and Environment).
In: OOKI, S. (ed.): Kouza Chikyu-kankyo 2, chikyu-kibo no kankyo mondai II (Earth
Environment Series Vol.2; Global scale environmental problems II), Chuo-hoki Publishing,
Tokyo, pp.216-235. (Japanese)
#
KELLER, S. (1994): The Food Situation in the Lao P.D.R. as of November 1994,
Unpublished World Food Programme (WFP) Report, Vientiane, 19p.
#
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Lao PDR. (ed.) (1993): Agricultural Statistics
Yearbook 1993, The Cabinet Office of Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Vientiane, 86p.
#
NISHIMURA, H. (1990): Nogyo-kaihatsu ni kansuru nomin no kodo to iko (Farmars’ Views
- 48 -
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
on Agricultural and Rural Development -Their incorporation into Rural Development
Planning in Bangladesh-), Tonan Asia Kenkyu (Southeast Asian Studies), 28-3,
pp.428-439. (Japanese)
#
NISHIMURA, H. (1995): Laos ni okeru jizokukano wo itosita nogyo kaihatu no kokoromi
(Review on the Trial of Sustainable Agricultural Development in Laos), Kokusai Kaihatu
Kenkyu (International Development Research), 4, pp85-91. (Japanese)
#
Nippon Koei Co., Ltd. and Construction Project Consultants, Inc. (1993): Agricultural
Development Project to Control Slash and Burn Cultivation in Oudomxay Province (Lao
PDR), Volume II: Master Plan Study, JICA, Tokyo, 512p.
#
Nippon Koei Co., Ltd. and Construction Project Consultants, Inc. (1993): Agricultural
Development Project to Control Slash and Burn Cultivation in Oudomxay Province (Lao
PDR), Volume III: Feasibility Study on Model Areas Scheme, JICA, Tokyo, 418p.
#
OKABE, H. (1995): Nam Kha Rural Development Scheme Socio-Economic Study Report,
UNDP/UNCDF LAO/89/029 - LAO/89/C03 Report, Vientiane, 44p.
#
Rural Systems Research and Farming Systems Research Projects for Khon Kean
University (1987): Rapid Rural Appraisal (Proceedings of the 1985 International
Conference), Khon Kean University, Khon Kean, 357p.
#
SASANAMI, H.(1992): Chiri-jyoho-sisutemu wo riyosita mekon-gawa ryuiki kanri kennkyuu
-Laos hokubu no shinrin kaifuku wo shiya ni irete (Research for management of the
Mekong Basin using Geographic Information System -in view of the recovery of Northern
Laos forests), UNCRD Newsletter (Nagoya), 11, pp.4-5. (Japanese)
# SHOGAKUKAN (ed.) (1995): Shokuzai-Zuten (FOOD’S FOOD), Shogakukan, Tokyo, 383p.
(Japanese)
#
SUZUKI, M. (1993): Noson-kaihatsu, ichi shudan to shiteno nogyo-kinyu no kanousei wo
megutte - Laos yakihata sakugen to konkyu-ka mekanizumu no yokusei wo megutte
(Rural development, for decreasing shifting cultivation and inhibiting poverty mechanism by
means of possibility for agricultural fund), IDC FORUM, 12, pp27-41. (Japanese)
#
TAKAHASHI, T. (1971): Indoshina-shokoku Laos (Indochina countries, Laos). In:
WATANABE A. (ed.): Sekai chiri 3 Tonan Asia (World Geography Vol.3, Southeast Asia),
Asakura-shoten Publishing, Tokyo, pp309-322. (Japanese)
#
TAMURA, T., SHIMADA, S., KADOMURA, H., and UMEZU, M. (ed.) (1995): Shitsujyun nettai
kankyo (Humid Tropical Environment). Asakura-shoten Publishing, Tokyo, 251p.
(Japanese)
#
The Nabong Agriculture College Project of the UNDP (1994): Shifting Cultivation Systems
and Rural Development in the LAO PDR (Report of the Nabong technical meeting),
Printing Press of Ministry of Education (Lao PDR), Vientiane, 274p.
#
Prime Minister’s office of LAO PDR (1993): Decree on the organization and administration
- 49 -
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
of villages, No.102/PM. Prime Minister’s office, Vientiane, 8p.
#
Prime Minister’s office of LAO PDR (1993): Decree of the Prime Minister on the
management and land use of forest and forest land, No.169. Prime Minister’s office,
Vientiane, 22p.
- 50 -
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
Appendix 1. Village statistics sheet of Phonsavang
No.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
Households
Household Total Female Male Labor
Name
force
Th. Vie
9
6
3
2
Th. Boun
2
1
1
2
Th. Phay
8
6
2
3
Th. Nhay
5
3
2
1
Th. Dom
10
5
5
3
Th. Nieng
6
5
1
2
Th. Hone
13
9
4
3
T. Vone
10
5
5
2
Th. Bounleuth
10
4
6
3
X. Kane
6
3
3
2
Th. Song
4
2
2
1
Th. Vane (a)
7
3
4
2
X. Ya
6
4
2
3
T. Pheng
4
2
2
1
X. Lith
7
4
3
3
X. Hack
10
5
5
3
Th. Say (b)
8
3
5
4
T. Thay
8
3
5
2
Th. Toui
6
4
2
2
X. Da
3
1
2
2
X. Seng
7
5
2
2
Th. Pho
10
3
7
2
Ch. Nou
8
2
6
2
X. Manh
5
3
2
2
X. Phanh
9
6
3
3
X. Phane
10
5
5
3
Th. Donh
6
3
3
2
Th. Neng
5
2
3
2
X. Phonh
10
4
6
4
X. Houmphanh
7
3
4
2
X. Le (b)
4
3
1
2
X. Toui
7
3
4
2
Ch. Oy
6
4
2
2
X. Tha
7
4
3
4
X. ha
9
6
3
2
X. Pheng
4
2
2
2
X. Vaht
8
4
4
2
X. Vanh
5
3
2
2
X. Manh
7
3
4
1
T. Phanh
7
3
4
2
X. Phou
7
4
3
2
X. Vanht
5
3
2
3
X. Veuy
5
3
2
2
X. Bay
8
4
4
2
X. Le (a)
4
1
3
2
Ch. Pha
7
3
4
2
Th. BounEuay
9
6
3
3
X. Kong
8
4
4
2
Th. SomVath
8
4
4
3
Th.Veuy
6
3
3
2
T. la
7
4
3
2
N. Monh
2
2
1
N. Nao
8
4
4
2
Th. Nom
7
4
3
3
X. Ath
10
4
6
4
N. Le
6
2
4
1
Th. Intong
4
2
2
1
Th. Phanh
4
1
3
3
Total
398
207
191
131
Agriculture
Livestock
Paddy
Shifting
Teakwood Buffalo Pig Poultry
(ha) (ton/ha) (ha) (ton/ha) (ha)
tree
1.02
1
5
20
1.54
1
10
1.2
2
20
0.9
3
10
1.42
0.3
0.76 2300
5
6
20
1
1
3
10
2.16
3
3
20
1.43
5
10
1.35
5
5
20
0.67
2
10
0.5
1
3
0.7
0.1
200
5
12
50
1.14
2
10
30
0.8
4
10
1
6
20
0.67
0.52
2
5
20
1.08
2
3
20
0.63
3
5
30
0.86
0.3
0.1
200
5
0.1
3
2
20
0.36
0.74
12
5
50
0.72
0.2
6
3
30
0.96
1
3
20
1.08
0.3
4
3
20
0.96
0.3
0.2
400
9
3
30
2.04
0.33
2
2
20
1.56
0.3
5
3
30
0.63
0.28
3
4
30
1.4
4
2
20
0.7
0.3
5
3
30
0.9
2
20
0.9
7
4
30
0.76
1
3
20
0.9
7
3
15
1.44
8
2
30
0.63
0.5
2
10
1.62
3
25
2.38
3
2
18
0.9
2
21
0.72
0.3
1
2
13
2
2
5
22
0.6
0.3
11
3
50
0.3
0.2
500
6
3
1.32
1
2
22
0.3
800
2
2
20
0.2
2
1.54
0.3
0.3
800
7
5
33
0.4
0.3
2
5
10
0.97
1
2
11
0.48
0.4
2
1
0.72
1
15
0.3
0.54
2
4
10
0.9
0.3
500
4
3
25
0.3
0.2
250
2
4
0.3
0.38
0.3
500
1
2
15
1
0.5
900
50.8
8.15
3.26 7350
160
182 1068
- 51 -
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
Appendix 2. Village statistics sheet of Donna
No.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
48
Households
Agriculture
Livestock
Household Total Female Male Labor
Paddy
Shifting
Teakwood Buffalo Pig Poultry
Name
force
(ha) (ton/ha) (ha) (ton/ha) (ha)
tree
X. Nhone
10
5
5
4
0.2
0.3
1
2
1 2000
8
25
12
X. Khang
6
3
3
2
0.4
0.4
1
2.4
X. Tha
8
5
3
2
1.5
3
0.9
2.4
7
2
T. Loun
12
3
9
3
1.1
3.2
1.2
4.2
0.3
200
4
T. Khamnha
7
2
5
3
0.7
1.5
0.9
1.5
2
4
X. Manh
8
3
5
2
0.6
1.8
0.6
1.8
2
1
T. Boun
10
4
6
4
0.9
2.4
0.8
3
0.3 1000
6
5
X. Bouth
9
5
4
2
0.4
12
0.8
0.9
3
2
X. Phong
6
3
3
2
0.5
2.1
0.4
0.9
0.1
300
1
1
4
X. Khong
11
7
4
4
2.2
3
0.9
2.1
1.-9 1100
8
5
13
T. Thone
5
3
2
2
0.8
2.1
2
2
T. Souvanh
6
2
4
2
0.3
0.9
0.5
1.2
0.1
100
3
2
10
T. ngoun
4
2
2
2
0.5
1.2
Th. Tha
10
6
4
4
0.3
0.6
0.8
3
5
Th. Thim
7
5
2
2
0.2
0.3
0.6
2
3
1
4
N. Si
1
1
0
Th. Pheng ( A )
5
2
3
2
0.3
0.2
Th. Piene
4
2
2
2
0.9
3
1
2
X. Khamme
12
7
5
3
0.3
1.5
0.8
1.5
0.1
100
1
4
X. Chanh
11
5
6
4
1.5
2.5
0.9
2.8
3
4
8
X. Hieng
8
3
5
2
0.6
2
0.6
2.1
4
4
11
Th. Sone
2
1
1
0.2
0.8
2
2
X. Koala
4
2
2
1
0.6
2
1
Th. Ten
3
2
1
2
0.6
1.2
2
X. Sing
8
3
5
3
0.7
1.5
0.7
1.8
10
Th. Tha
6
3
3
2
0.7
2.4
0.4
1.9
4
2
7
X. kong
3
1
2
2
0.8
2.7
Th. Thone
7
5
2
2
0.4
1.2
0.4
1.5
6
1
5
Th. Pheng ( B )
5
3
2
1
0.2
0.9
1.2
3.6
3
1
2
X. Thi
9
5
4
2
0.9
2.1
0.9
2
5
4
12
X. Veuy
4
2
2
2
0.4
1.5
0.8
1.8
9
4
18
X. Sene
8
4
4
2
0.6
1.5
0.1
100
2
Th. Ka
8
5
3
2
0.2
0.3
0.9
2.7
0.1
50
1
2
4
Th. Bounka
11
8
3
3
0.5
0.9
0.8
3.9
5
2
X. He
2
1
1
2
0.4
0.7
Th. Kong
5
2
3
2
0.3
0.7
0.4
0.9
2
Th. Thongsouk
5
3
2
2
0.2
0.5
X. Kio
5
3
2
2
0.3
0.6
Th. Vat
8
4
4
4
0.5
1.8
0.9
3.6
1
3
4
Th. La ( A )
9
4
5
3
0.7
2.7
0.5
1.5
0.3
120
5
1
2
Th. La ( B )
9
5
4
2
1
1.8
1.9
3
0.3
670
5
3
3
T. Pheng
5
2
3
1
0.3
0.7
3
Th. Nith
4
1
3
2
0.2
0.7
X. Kham
8
4
4
3
0.8
1.8
Th. Vong
7
2
5
2
0.2
0.9
0.3
1.5
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
142
X: Xieng, T: Thit, Th: Thao, N: Nang, Ch: Chane
- 52 -
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
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
- 53 -
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
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)
Q1 If money were available, what would you want to do best?
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)
Q2 How is your village? (good, average, bad; why?)
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)
Q3 If you were a village leader, what would you like to do?
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)
Q4 What is your role in your family?
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)
- 54 -
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
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)
Q1 If money were available, what would you want to do best?
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)
Q2 How is your village? (good, average, bad; why?)
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)
Q3 If you were a village leader, what would you like to do?
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)
Q4 What is your role in your family?
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)
- 55 -
UNDP/UNCDF Small Scale Irrigation Project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha
Phonsavang and Donna Villages Study Report
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)
Q1 If money were available, what would you want to do best?
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)
Q2 How is your village? (good, average, bad; why?)
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)
Q3 If you were a village leader, what would you like to do?
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)
Q4 What is your role in your family?
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)
- 56 -