Until recently, many households in Thapha were without rice for three to four months of the year.
Images from MAG's programme in Lao PDR – the most bombed country in the world per capita
With no irrigation system in the fields, only one rice harvest was possible every year, during the monsoon. This created what is known as the ‘hungry season’.
MAG cleared land in the Gnommalat District village of Khammouane Province in two separate periods during 2007-8, finding and destroying 263 items of unexploded ordnance.
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An irrigation system that allows two rice harvests a year instead of one was able to be installed after MAG cleared the land of dangerous unexploded ordnance. |
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"People’s lives have improved a lot", says Thapha's deputy village chief. [Photos: MAG Lao PDR] |
Once MAG’s clearance work was completed, the safe land was handed back to the villagers. MAG’s development partner Triangle – a French rural development non-governmental organisation – then constructed an irrigation system that allows two rice harvests a year instead of one.
Mr. Kan is the deputy village chief, and is also a rice farmer like his fellow community members. He says that families whose land was irrigated were provided with 300 kilogrammes of seed in 2009 by district authorities.
“From that amount of seed, on average we can harvest 2.5 tons [of rice] per 10,000 square meters. This provides enough rice for the whole year and people’s lives have improved a lot."
Your donation to MAG helps us to move into current and former conflict zones to clear the remnants of those conflicts, enabling recovery and assisting the development of affected populations.
Images from MAG's programme in Lao PDR – the most bombed country in the world per capita:
29 May 2009
MAG's work in Lao PDR is supported by: AusAID; DFID (UK
Department for International Development); European Commission; The Humpty Dumpty
Institute; Irish Aid; Jersey Overseas Aid; USDA (United States Department of Agriculture); US Department of State.
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