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News for People like You!
July 28-31, 1998
Drought affects agriculture in central, southern Laos 
RICE cultivation in central and southern provinces are facing water
shortages due to uneven and scattered rainfall. 
Farmers in Se Bangfay district, central Khammouane province, are
facing drought, which delays their rice transplantation. To date, 80 per
cent of the district's 4,005 ha of rice fields have been transplanted. 
Confronting such a situation, the district administration has mobilised
local labour to repair irrigation facilities for water supply to the second
rice transplantation and cultivation of subsidiary crops. 
In Nyommalad district, there are 4,400 ha of paddy fields in all. But
according to an official of the District Agriculture Office, not all the paddy
fields can be put under rice due to unfavourable rains, which delays the
process of rice transplantation. In some areas, farmers have rice
seedlings in hand but not enough water for transplantation. 
Rice transplantation in Nyommalad has been completed by 90.5 percent
of the total rice-growing areas. 
To ease drought effects, the district has planned to practise rice
re-transplantation, where favourable, and prepare rice seeds for the
supply to farmers. 
Meanwhile, Sekong province is also facing serious drought, which has
wilted and killed transplanted seedlings. Rice transplantation in this
mountainous province has covered 660.6 ha, accounting for 30 percent
of the total 2,200 ha in the province. 
Rice production is concentrated mainly in two districts: Lamam and
Thateng. It is not widely practised in other districts where their
geographical locations are predominated by mountains. 
In order to ease the effects of the drought, the Provincial Agriculture
Service has delivered two pumps to facilitate the re-transplantation
process. 
In Attopeu province, farmers in Saysettha district are preparing
themselves for possible drought. Since early this month, farmers have
been able to transplant only 20 per cent out of the total area of 4,114 ha.
The rest of the area remains uncultivated and a report indicates that
some transplanted areas and rice seedling plots are drying up, plants
are wilted and dead. 
To cope with the situation, the district authorities have set up a
committee for drought prevention and to find alternatives to tackle the
situation. The measures to alleviate the situation include mobilising
people to grow dry season crops wherever it is possible. In addition, the
committee looks for suitable crop strains to be distributed to farmers.
The drought is expected to be quite severe. 
According to a weather forecast report by the Meteorology and
Hydrology Department on July 23, the central and southern parts of the
country will have scattered rainfall and drought is still looming over the
two parts. 
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