SUSPER

Sustainable Development of Peri-urban Agriculture

in South-East Asia Project
(Kingdom of Cambodia, Lao PDR, Vietnam RS)

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Laotians want more local vegetables at market

Consumers in Vientiane prefer to buy locally produced vegetables because they believe them to be fresher and safer than vegetables from abroad. This was one of the major findings of a survey conducted of consumers in markets of Tong Kan Kham, That Luang and Kua Dim. Other findings included:

Most vegetables consumed in Vientiane come from farms located within 30 km of the city center. These farms supply the city with 80% of its leafy vegetables and more than 70% of its fruit-type vegetables.

Supplies of major vegetables (tomato, Chinese kale, cucumber, and Chinese mustard) are insufficient in the rainy season (May to November). This leads to imports from Thailand and doubling of consumer prices. Hence the development of improved production practices of these vegetables in the rainy season can bring additional income opportunities for farmers and traders, and decrease consumer prices. This reinforces the need for farmer's training and the introduction of technologies such as tomato grafting for off-season production.

We found that incomes are highly variable from one trader to the other. On the whole, marketing margins are quite small (7 to 36% of purchase price).

Strategies to improve the markets in Vientiane are needed. We found no clear specialization of traders and market places between wholesale and retail activities, which is due to the poorly developed state of market infrastructures and small quantities transacted for each actor (for example, the maximum is 300 kg/day for vendors of cucumber). Our researchers concur with a FAO study that concluded that it was more cost-effective for local authorities to upgrade the infrastructure (paving, drainage and roofing) of existing markets rather than building a large-scale specialized wholesale market.

Full report (547KB - .pdf)

Technical Workshop and The 3rd Steering Committee meeting in Vientiane

From 15-17 December 2004, the Third Steering Committee was held in Vientiane (1) to evaluate activity results presented and discussed during the two-day technical workshop (December 15&16, 2004); (2) to outline orientations for the last year; (3) to approve the work plan and budget for the last year 2005.

For the final year, activities will focus on validation and dissemination of results acquired from the previous year and evaluation of the activities as well as technology transferring to farmers. Some particular activities are finalizing and publishing reports, project evaluation in mid 2005, training on grafting technique, the 4th Steering committee by the end of 2005 in HCMC … All these activities focus on retaining the sustainability of the project after its closure.

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