Agriculture
Considering the agriculture and forestry sector as the basis for developing the country’s industry we can see that during the past 30 years this sector has expanded consistently and managed an average growth rate of 4-5 percent a year. To date, the sector has made up 52 percent of Laos’ Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (planting – 27 percent, animal husbandry – 19 percent and forestry – 6 percent).
The Government has focused investments on constructing infrastructure, particularly irrigation systems to enhance agricultural production. There are currently 24,695 irrigation systems all over the country, which can provide water to 215,000ha of arable land in the dry season. This is a massive increase when compared with 1976 when there were only just over 2,700ha of irrigated land in the country in the dry season. In addition, the National Agriculture and Research Institute (NAFRI) was established and it has grown to include 10 centres, eight stations and a vaccine factory. Thanks to these infrastructure improvements, rice production in 2005 reached 2.6 million tons, while the rice harvest in 1976 was only just over 660,000 tons. Since 2000 the Lao PDR has been self-sufficient in rice and had rice surpluses, some of which have been exported. This had never occurred before in the history of Laos.
Apart from growing rice and planting other crops, animal raising in both the farming industry and through native methods has expanded consistently. Livestock numbers have increased by three percent a year and fish numbers have grown by 15 percent a year, meaning the country can basically meet the demands of the domestic market. Moreover, many kinds of animal products are now being exported and, to date, the export value of Lao animal products has reached US$ 70 million a year.
The forestry sector is one of the Government’s main focuses at the present time. There are over 167,000ha of tree plantations. The land and forest allocation project has been completed in 6,510 villages and 1,920,150ha of agricultural land and 3,640,117ha of forests have so far been allocated. Slash-and-burn agriculture has basically been stopped all over the country in 2005. Furthermore, 10,611,416ha of forests have been surveyed and managed. There are 20 national forest conservation areas with 3,156,100ha, covering 25 percent of the current forested areas, 188 provincial forest conservation areas with 2,906,580ha, 494 protection forests with 2,164,485ha, 456 production forests with 2,348,631ha and 164 temporarily unstocked forests covering 181,920ha.
Moreover, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has been able to attract assistance and loans from abroad to develop its sector. At present there are 73 projects, including 63 grant aid projects, worth over USD 111 million and 10 loan projects, worth over US$ 108 million, underway in the sector.

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