Research Reports

Famer Perception and Practice in Off-Season Vegetable Production and Market Supplied Assessment in Vientiane Capital

Vegetables are grown mostly in permanent home gardens, on riverbank gardens during the dry season, on irrigated fields and in mixed cropping systems with lowland rice in Lao PDR. Vegetable production is an important activity for smallholder farmers.This project in accordance with the agricultural policy implemented by the Lao government supports strategies aimed at: achieving food self-sufficiency, increasing export of agricultural products, and commercialization and processing of production. In order for this to be achieved, information on agriculture especially the challenges and opportunities to obtain information on vegetable production, marketing and development of market supplies needs to be studied. However, the initial data relating to vegetable production in Vientiane Capital was used as a reference for this study. There were two types of data that focused on the problem of off-season vegetable production in five districts in Vientiane Capital. The data  was directly collected from 30 farmers from each district and merchandises in four main markets where 20 wholesalers and 20 retailers were randomized for interviewing.The top ten vegetables were cabbage, pakchoi, Chinese mustard, onion, eggplant, lettuce, coriander, yard long bean, cauliflower, and cucumber were general grown, sold, and consumed. The results show that vegetable production provided great benefits for farmers’ households, as shown in the proportion of vegetable growing areas (highest proportion were fruit vegetables: Lon-eggplant 66.67%, hot pepper 46.67% and tomato 36.67%; with leafy vegetables: Pak-choi 40%, lettuce 33.33%, coriander 30% and Chinese mustard 30%). Tomato had the highest production levels and brought the highest income for farmer households.

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Xayasinh SOMMANY