Trends and perceptions of rural household groundwater use and the implications for smallholder agriculture in rain-fed Southern Laos

Abstract

In Laos, the extent of rural groundwater use is largely unknown. This paper presents results of a study conducted in Champasak province, Southern Laos, to examine rural household attitudes to groundwater use and management; and to gauge farmer perceptions of the opportunities/constraints of increased groundwater use for smallholder agriculture. Significant differences in groundwater use, total cash income and perceived groundwater quality were found. Further agricultural expansion was constrained by insufficient labour and the limited area of individual landholdings, not by the limited groundwater supply, which was the preferred source to fulfil increased demands for domestic/agricultural use. There were no groundwater regulations.

Groundwater as a Source of Drinking Water in Southeast Asia and the Pacific: A Multi-Country Review of Current Reliance and Resource Concerns

“…The use of groundwater was found to be substantially greater (by a factor of three) when the use of groundwater as a secondary source was included [95]. In Lao PDR, a study of rural household groundwater use found that some households used point-source groundwater for non-drinking domestic purposes in situations where reticulated water was used for drinking [96]. In atoll islands of the Solomon Islands, an analysis of water resources management found that groundwater is used for washing but not drinking [73].…”

Regional Assessment of Groundwater Recharge in the Lower Mekong Basin

“…Groundwater is a largely untapped resource for agricultural development in the LMB and particularly in Laos where groundwater irrigation in 2010 represented just 0.1% of the total irrigated area in the country [2]. However, in areas remote from reliable surface water supplies, farmers are increasingly resorting to this resource to irrigate high-value crops [4,56]. Although there is considerable scope for extending groundwater-fed irrigations schemes, setting an upper limit can help preserve groundwater resources and maintain their eco-systemic functionalities.…”

“…However, it remains largely underutilized in the Mekong Basin [2] and particularly in parts of Laos and Cambodia where the primary source for irrigation is surface water [3,4]. Groundwater resources are better protected from pollution than surface water, and allow for more reliable abstraction over time due to smoother inter-annual and inter-seasonal variations than the surface water strongly influenced by the monsoonal climate [5].…”

Rice farming systems in Southern Lao PDR: Interpreting farmers’ agricultural production decisions using Q methodology

“…The agricultural production environment in the southern and central rice growing regions of Lao PDR is in general, harsher than the fertile lowlands of other countries in the region. Soils are generally poor, often becoming waterlogged during the wet season, and three-quarters of the agriculture is rainfed (Denton and Bell, 2014;Vote et al, 2015). The predominance of rice-based farming systems on infertile, poorly structured soils means that current agriculture has rather low productivity on both a labour and a land area basis (Denton and Bell, 2014).…”

“…Rural households have been adopting individual livelihood strategies, diversifying production and maximizing labour productivity, with migration and remittances becoming attractive alternatives . Agricultural diversification strategies are available to farmers, as international organizations provide specialized advice on non-rice field crops, horticultural crops, ways to improve rainfed cropping and information on raising ruminant livestock (Clarke et al, 2016;Manivong et al, 2014;Newby et al, 2013;Vote et al, 2015).…”