Final Technical Report - weADAPT

Background of study site in Lao PDR: Savannakhet Province
Lao PDR locates in the center of the Southeast Asian peninsular, between lat.
13 0 54’ to 22 0 03’ North, and between long. 100 0 05’ to 107 0 38’ East, with total area of
236,800 km 2 . The length from north to south is approximately 1,000 km, and the width
from east to west is approximately 470 km.
Savannakhet province locates in the central to southern part of Lao PDR, having a
total area of 21,774 km 2 , consisting of 15 districts. The topography of Savannakhet
province is low land and slope slightly from east to west to Mekong River. Savannakhet
province has the largest area of rice fields in the country, 139,582 ha or 19% of total rice
fields in Lao PDR (Committee for Planning and Cooperation, 2003). Total population of
Savannakhet province is 811,400 people or approximately 15% of the country population,
which is the highest populated province in the country and mostly is farmer.
Songkhone district locates in the southwest of Savannakhet province. It is the
largest district in the province, with the total area of 1, 406 km 2 . The district consists of
142 villages, and 13,919 households, which makes the total population of 86,855 people.
Most of the population is farmer and grow rice mostly for own consumption with minor
commercial on the excess production. The rice farming system is rain-fed rice farming
with single crop cycle per year.
Four villages selected as study area namely, Seboungnuantay, Lahakhoke,
Khouthee, and Dongkhamphou villages. The study site has total area of 1,851 ha with the
population 2,490 people in 434 households.
Final technical report – AIACC AS07 59