Farmers' Perceptions of Rice-Growing Techniques in Laos : "Primitive" or "Thammasat" ?

Author concluded, from field survyes, that agriculture in Laos were still primitive or thammasat (ທຳມະຊາດ : nature or primitive) or not yet modernized. But looking at many adversed socio-economic and environmental impacts in Thailand for instance, author thought modernization of agriculture in Laos should rather be done harmoniously with the nature. Downloadable at
http://www.cseas.kyoto-u.ac.jp/seas/31/2/310203.pdf

Agricultural Mechanization in Rural Area of Lao PDR: A Case Study of Farm Tractorization

Base on analysis on 88 surveyed farming households, authors concluded that farmers with tractors grow and sell more rice on larger farm lands. I wonder if the causality might be the other way round, such as, they could afford tractors because they were firstly bigger. Anyway, as they also found that farmers with tractors have incresing returns to scale production, shifting from water buffalo to tractors would likely be a smart move, for those hoping to grow. Downloadable at https://qir.kyushu-u.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2324/12878/1/p593.pdf

Rice in Laos

Published in 2006 and covered many topics from historical, geographical, ethnical, technical and institutional aspects of rice and rice productions in Laos. The book contains many of spatial and time series information on rice, which in many cases is just the agriculture itself in Laos' case, and will certainly be of interests not only to agriculturalists, but also historian as well as economists, doing researches on Laos. Viewable without restriction on google book at
http://www.google.com/books?id=k3bLVNvzWcQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Laos&lr=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&as_brr=1&ei=RLMpStmOL4nQkwSt29zzBg&hl=ja#PPA42,M1 and downloadable from publisher's site.

Constraints to Rice Production Systems in Laos

This paper summarizes the known main abiotic and biotic production constraints in each of Laos’s rice-producing environments: wet-season lowlands, dry-season irrigated, and rainfed uplands, but not those socioeconomic constraints that can also have significant impact on farmer attitudes and production. Downloadable at
http://www.aciar.gov.au/system/files/sites/aciar/files/node/2301/pr101chapter01.pdf

Use of Natural Biological Resources and Their Roles in Household Food Security in Northwest Laos

A study that focuses on agriculture-forestry-based livelihood systems of Northwestern Lao people through village studies, including semi-structured group interviews, questionnaire survey, participatory observation and wealth ranking in Luang Namtha province. The paper can be downloaded from http://www.cseas.kyoto-u.ac.jp/seas/41/4/410402.pdf