Field+visit

__**Field Visit**__
A field visit will take place on Wednesday 17.11.2010 to introduce the participants to some of our work in Laos. This visit will focus on improved smallholder pig production systems emerged from the Legumes for Pigs Project (L4PP) which has recently finished. We will go by car to some of our project sites close to Luang Prabang to give you an insight in smallholder farming systems in Laos in general and animal production systems in particular. The visited sites will be representative for upland farming systems in the region and may give you a good idea about the constraints smallholder livestock keepers are facing here.

Feedback from the trip (collected from participants):

 farmer with 4cows & 12pigs enough for livelihood ok,

 farming system on hillsides

 not enough incentive for upsizing? , appear content at ‘subsistence’ level

 Floating ??type of forage in water

 Crushing leaves & feeding to cows

 From scavenging to confined systems – now functioning independently from project input?

 Cotton seed removal machine

 Really small farm size, very clean quite villages, many houses with sat. dishes

 People are content with what they have

 Interventions from project have been adopted

 How to manage ecosystem – nice fodders

 Sustainability of project (FAP)

 Application of new technology

 Pigs, ladies & lao-lao

 First visit to SE Asia – village life very interesting, mountain rice, self-sufficiency of villages, onion plantations in front of homes, friendly ox

 No birds/wild-life

<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 8px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"> Forest – farmers derive income from this?

<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 8px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"> By-products of lao-lao fed to pigs