Abstract
Despite being a low-income, agriculture-based country with a subsistence orientation, Laos is in the early stages of a major economic transformation whereby rural households have been experiencing rapid change in their farming and livelihood systems. Some households have begun to engage in semi-commercial farming while others have adopted labour-oriented or migration-oriented livelihood strategies. This paper explores how rural households in six villages in the lowlands of Champasak Province in southern Laos make a living. These villages vary in their access to irrigation and to markets. Nevertheless, in all villages, long-term migration of younger household members to neighbouring Thailand has come to play a large role in household livelihood strategies. In some cases this is necessary to meet the household’s consumption requirements; in most, it is part of a diversified strategy in which rice farming still plays a significant role, though still largely for subsistence. The paper examines some of the issues involved in attempting to promote intensive, market-oriented rice farming in a context of an emerging on-farm labour shortage combined with an increasing flow of remittances from migrant family members.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
This is based on the current farmers’ practices for rice cultivation—the use of a two-wheeled tractor for land preparation, manual transplanting and harvesting, and threshing by tractor-powered thresher.
The yields for both WS 2010 and DS 2010–11 are the reported paddy (i.e., unmilled rice) yields, calculated from farmers’ estimates of cultivated area and production. When cross-checked with case-study farms and field experiments, these estimates appear reasonably accurate to two significant figures (i.e., plus or minus 0.1 t/ha).
By ‘off‐farm work’ we here mean working off their own farm but on neighbouring farms or private farms such as rubber plantations, usually within the same village or general location. ‘Non-farm employment’ refers to non-agricultural work such as construction work that may be local or elsewhere in Laos (such as in the capital, Vientiane). In the latter case, workers would return to the village only occasionally. ‘Working in Thailand’ means working either in agricultural or non-agricultural employment in Thailand, involving migration away from the village with only intermittent return.
1 USD = 8,027 LAK, May 2011
Total (gross) income includes the income from rice even if not sold, sale of vegetables and other non-rice crops, sale of livestock, sale of NTFPs, off-farm earnings, non-farm earnings, and remittances. Remittances here were the net transfers (deducting costs such as transfer fees).
1 USD = 30 THB, May 2011
Labour could be used in many ways to increase yields, from land-levelling, bund maintenance, improved water control, more attention to pest and weed control, completing operations from transplanting to harvesting in a more timely fashion, through to giving more time to post-harvest operations, especially drying. In addition, increased yields in themselves require more labour for harvesting.
References
Baird, I. (2009). Land, Rubber and People: Rapid Agrarian Changes and Responses in Southern Laos. Journal of Lao Studies 1: 1–47.
Barney, K. (2012). Land, Livelihoods, and Remittances: A Political Ecology of Youth Out-migration across the Lao–Thai Mekong Border. Critical Asian Studies 44: 57–83.
Boserup, E. (1965). The Conditions of Agricultural Growth: The Economics of Agrarian Change under Population Pressure. Earthscan, London.
Deelen, L., and Vasuprasat, P. (2010). Migrant Workers’ Remittances from Thailand to Cambodia, Lao PDR and Myanmar: Synthesis Report on Survey Findings in Three Countries and Good Practices. ILO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok.
Eliste, P., and Santos, N. (2012). Lao People’s Democratic Republic Rice Policy Study 2012. FAO, Rome.
Ellis, F. (2000). Rural Livelihoods and Diversity in Developing Countries. Oxford University Press, New York.
Gurung, R., Pa, C., and Deng, H. (2009). South Korea Agriculture Policy Review (Vol. 5). Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.
Hayami, Y. (1998). The peasant in economic modernisation. In Eicher, C. K., and Staatz, J. M. (eds.), International Agricultural Development, 3rd ed. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, pp. 300–315.
Hayami, Y., and Ruttan, V. (1985). Agricultural Development: An International Perspective. Revised and Expanded Edition. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London.
Kenney-Lazar, M. (2010). Land Concessions, Land Tenure, and Livelihood Change: Plantation Development in Attapeu Province. Fulbright and National University of Laos, Vientiane, Southern Laos.
Li, T. M. (2009). Exit from Agriculture: A Step Forward or a Step Backward for the Rural Poor? Journal of Peasant Studies 36: 629–636.
Linquist, B., and Sengxua, P. (2001). Nutrient Management in Rainfed Lowland rice in the Lao PDR. International Rice Research Institute, Los Baños.
Manivong, V. (2014). Agrarian Transition in Lowland Southern Laos: Implications for Rural Livelihoods. PhD Thesis. University of Queensland, Brisbane.
McDowell, C., and de Haan, A. (1997). Migration and Sustainable Livelihoods: A Critical Review of the Literature. IDS Working Paper 65. Institute of Development Studies (IDS), Brighton.
MPI and UNDP (2009). Employment and Livelihoods Lao PDR, 2009. The 4th National Human Development Report. Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Vientiane.
National Statistics Centre (2005). Population and Housing Census Year 2005. National Statistics Centre, Vientiane.
Newby, J. C., Manivong, V., and Cramb, R. A. (2013). Intensification of Lowland Rice-based Farming Systems in Laos in the Context of Diversified Rural Livelihoods. Paper presented at the 57th AARES Annual Conference, 5–8 February 2013, Sydney, Australia.
Pandey, S., and Sanamongkhoun, M. (1998). Rainfed Lowland Rice in Laos: A Socio-economic Benchmark Study. International Rice Research Institute, Los Baños.
Pandey, S., Velasco, L. E., and Suphanchaimat, N. (2002). Economics of direct seeding in northeast Thailand. In Pandey, S., Mortimer, M., Wade, L., Tuong, T. P., Lopez, K., and Hardy, B. (eds.), Direct Seeding: Research Issues and Opportunities. International Rice Research Institute, Los Baños, pp. 139–160.
Phouxay, K., and Tollefsen, A. (2011). Rural–urban Migration, Economic Transition, and Status of Female Industrial Workers in Lao PDR. Population, Space and Place 17: 421–434.
Rigg, J. (2005). Living with Transition in Laos: Market Integration in Southeast Asia. Routledge, London.
Rigg, J. (2006). Land, Farming, Livelihoods, and Poverty: Rethinking the Links in the Rural South. World Development 34: 180–202.
Rigg, J. (2007). Moving Lives: Migration and Livelihoods in the Lao PDR. Population, Space and Place 13: 163–178.
Rigg, J., and Salamanca, A. (2011). Connecting Lives, Living, and Location: Mobility and Spatial Signatures in Northeast Thailand, 1982–2009. Critical Asian Studies 43: 551–575.
Scoones, I. (2009). Livelihoods Perspectives and Rural Development. Journal of Peasant Studies 36: 171–196.
Scott, J. C. (2009). The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia. NUS Press, Singapore.
Thongyou, M., and Ayuwat, D. (2005). Social Network of Laotian Migrant Workers in Thailand. Working Paper Series No. 80. Southeast Asia Research Centre (SEARC) of the City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
World Bank (2007). World Development Report 2008: Agriculture for Development. The World Bank, Washington DC.
World Food Programme (2007). Lao PDR: Comprehensive Food Security and Vulnerability Analysis (CFSVA). World Food Programme, Vientiane.
Acknowledgments
The larger study from which data for this paper were drawn is for the first author’s PhD thesis and is also a component of a research project funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR)—‘Developing improved farming and marketing systems in rainfed regions of southern Lao PDR’ (Project CSE/2009/004). We would like to thank staff from the Agriculture and Forestry Policy Research Centre, the Southern Agriculture and Forestry Research Centre, and the District Agriculture and Forestry Offices of Phonthong and Soukhouma for working as enumerators, providing valuable information and assisting during the fieldwork; and the authorities of the study villages for facilitating the interviews with farmers and providing information during group discussions. Special thanks go to the farmers who shared their time and interesting stories. The research was funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) through Project CSE/2009/004 and a John Allwright Fellowship to the first author. An earlier version of the paper was presented to the Annual Conference of the Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society (AARES), 7–10 February 2012, Fremantle, Western Australia. We are grateful to Peter Warr for encouraging comments at that session and to three anonymous referees for helpful suggestions.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Manivong, V., Cramb, R. & Newby, J. Rice and Remittances: Crop Intensification Versus Labour Migration in Southern Laos. Hum Ecol 42, 367–379 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-014-9656-6
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-014-9656-6