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Though just 6 years old, Lo Ya already bears on her tiny frame
the heavy burdens of upland farm life in northern Laos. Her
final chore on a recent afternoon was to fetch a load of rice
straw for the family’s water buffalo from neighbor Kama
Zong, assuming, of course, he had some to spare.
Fortunately, Kama was able to oblige, because he feeds his
own animals mostly with forage grasses and legumes that he
grows in a nearby upland field. The plants were introduced
several years ago by Lao researchers under a CIAT-coordinated
forage project that has benefited thousands of farm families
in seven Southeast Asian countries (see page 28). Kama also
plays an active role in local participatory research aimed
at finding better ways to maintain soil fertility in forage
plots and to integrate these multipurpose plants into upland
farming systems.
A lot depends on the outcomes of this work. Upland villages
desperately need new sources of animal feed, so farmers can
sustainably intensify the production of livestock and thus
reinforce this central part of the social safety net.
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