Author: Khamphou Phouyyavong
AIT Library Call Number: AIT Thesis no.RD-09-08
Year: 2009
Academic Program: Regional and Rural Development Planning (RRDP)
Type: Thesis (M.Sc.) – Asian Institute of Technology, 2009
Examination Committee: Gopal Bahadur Thapa (Chairperson); Jayant Kumar Routray, Mokbul Morshed Ahmad (Examination Committee Members)
Abstract: Upland farmers in Laos are confronting a situation where there is decreasing productivity of upland areas. This is mainly to population increases, declining soil fertility erosion and moisture deficiency. Therefore, they cannot produce enough food to maintain family livelihoods throughout the year. Hence, alternative agriculture technologies and crops which provide higher return are needed to replace the traditional practices. From previous experience, it has been found that diffusion and adoption of upland technologies is varied due to diversity in condition (ethnic, biophysical, markets, etc). This study aimed to explore causes of village level and household level vanatlOn in adoption of different cropping system technologies in Lao-Swedish Upland Agriculture and Forestry Research Programme research sites. The study focused on the relations between different characteristics such as: household dynamics, crops, institutional support, service facilities, and environment context. The study used a variety of methods including: face to face interview, semi-structure interview and group discussion. Statistic Package for Social Science (SPSS) was used to analyse and T-test was applied to test mean of descriptive data to see the significant different of variables among adopters and non¬adopters. Variables under the study were calculated, summarized, and then presented in cross tabulate, percentage, average, and mean. Qualitative statements were used to describe the factors influencing the adoption decision making of farmers. The study found that there is variation in adoption of crops among villages, which results from biophysical conditions, availability of irrigation, availability of natural grazing area, and ethnicity and traditional practice. Household variation in adoption was influenced by extension intervention and support facilities such as number of time contacts with agriculture extension workers, number of times joined agricultural study tour, number of sources of agricultural information obtained, c
Scholarship Donor(s): National Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute, Lao PDR
Note: A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Regional and Rural Development Planning
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