Lao. I couldn't understand, but I kept hearing this name — 'Sulaphon' — over and over again.
It turns out that he’s a Laos-IRRI-trained agronomist. When he first visited Naoukhou in the late
90s, it was a very poor village. Now, largely thanks to his efforts, they are rice-sufficient."
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do by foreign researchers. According to Dr Linquist, this practice
extensively boosted the adoption of new farming technologies.
"We worked very closely with the farmers," he explains. "Involving farmers in all the steps of
research, from analyzing their problems through to finding new technologies, has really been beneficial and
has allowed us to get technologies into farmers' fields."
Lao-IRRI's emphasis on capacity building means that, as well as working closely with farmers themselves,
project staff have taught Lao agricultural officers to work better with the farmers.
"Traditionally, district advisers and extension agents have generally just told
farmers what to do," says Dr Linquist.
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with the less favorable areas of eastern Laos still suffering rice-deficit.
But the building blocks are well and truly in place. According to Monthathip Chanpengsay, Deputy Director of
the National Agricultural and Forestry Research Institute, the country now has the ability to continue improving on
its own. There is, she says, a confidence that simply didn’t exist 15 years ago.
"The National Rice Program is now sustainable," says Dr Chanpengsay. "Even if IRRI went home tomorrow, the rice industry
would be OK.
But having IRRI involved has many benefits — it helps us network with
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As it was, the rise of Naoukhou happened almost by accident, but stands as an example of the project’s many unanticipated benefits.
"Naoukhou wasn't a target village," explains Dr. Linquist. "We chose the area because it had
gall midge problems and it was good for screening. But Sulaphon got to know the farmers, who looked
at these trials and saw some good stuff. They asked for seed, Sulaphon gave it to them and 'boom!' —
it just spread." |
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Dr Schiller is adamant that one of the factors in Lao-IRRI's success was nurturing a sense of Lao ownership.
"I didn't want it seen as just an 'IRRI Project in Laos'," he says. "I often played on the 'IRRI'
component of the project name. Expressed in the Lao language with the right tones, 'IRRI' means 'genuine'.
You can appreciate the opportunity we had to emphasize that the project was genuinely Lao."
This ownership can be seen in the way farmers themselves take part in the research, and aren’t merely told what to
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"After training district officers, we asked them what sort of benefits
they found in working with farmers this way compared with past methods. They told us, 'We used to have to
look for farmers. Now farmers are coming to us and asking to work with us.'"
The true success of the Lao-IRRI Project — which is set to end in early 2006 — will only be
known years from now. But the impact so far has been impressive, with much of the country now self-sufficient
in rice. Work remains to be done, though,
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neighboring countries
and international agencies, and it gives us a broad overview that keeps things moving smoothly."
Dr Linquist agrees. "The capacity is there for the future," he says. "There are strong links established
between IRRI and the Lao national partners. The big issue now is thinking of innovative ways to continue the
research. But the capacity is there."
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