The National Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute and National University of Laos will continue a collaborative research project for the improvement of the livelihoods of small-scale farmers in semi-mountainous areas.
The two parties will continue to work at the Japan International Research Centre for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS) for the development of the project after seeing the progress made under the project from 2011-2016.
The message was relayed during an inception workshop held yesterday in Vientiane led by the Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Mr. Thongphat Vongmany and the Ambassador of Japan to Laos Dr Takeshi Hikihara.
The three parties are also planning to carry out the following four components of the projects in Laos, particularly in the central and northern areas, according to a statement from the institute.
Those components are multiple use and value addition of the regional resources for sustainable improvement of productivity in semi-mountainous villages in Indochina; formation of food value chain through the value addition of food resources for supporting sustainable rural development; development of forestry technologies in indigenous tree plantations on slopes in Laos; and technical development for the captive breeding of indigenous freshwater shrimp.
The above projects include more research fields to try to improve the food value chain, forestry and indigenous shrimp culture techniques in addition to the livelihood improvement of the small scale farmers in semi-mountainous areas.
Yesterday’s meeting was co-chaired by the university’s Acting President Prof. Dr Somsy Gnorphanxay , JIRCAS President Mr. Masa Iwanaga, and the institute’s Director General Dr Bounthong Bouahom.
Source: Vientiane Times
