SBR- Content.pmd - INBO

State of the Basin Report - 2003and arrangements.” 144 In general, such facilities are underdeveloped across the basin, making itharder for farmers to make the best decisions on what crops produce, and whether the pricesthey receive could be better. The solution to these problems is generally held to be more effectiveon-farm extension programs, but such moves are often hampered by a lack of experiencedmanagement staff at the field level, and limited flexibility in government operations andbudgeting support. 145 Another marketing-related issue is the development of mechanisms suchas product grades to ensure that crop qualities meet the standards of local, national andinternational markets.Rural infrastructure is important because it determines the ease with which products are able to movefrom the farm gate to the final consumer market, and is hence a major determinant of their final costand competitiveness. Infrastructure problems exist across the basin area, but are most pronounced inLao PDR, where the 1992/3 census found that approximately 20 percent of the population lived inareas not accessible by truck and over half were more than 10 km from the nearest market. 146 While itis difficult to estimate the costs of such a situation to rural communities, they are sure to be considerable.In response, the Lao PDR government, along with the other LMB countries, has made the upgradingof farm-to-market road networks a high development priority in rural areas.6. ConclusionAgriculture provides the livelihood of 75 percent of the population of the Lower Mekong Basin andis a key driver of national development in each of the riparian countries. The sector is also a majorsource of pressure on the natural resources of the region. Understanding and monitoring the linksbetween agricultural activities, land and water use, and environmental change are critical to anyattempts to ensure the sustainable development of the LMB.• Agricultural activities are the mainstays of the Cambodian and Lao PDR economies and majorproviders of employment and export earnings for Thailand and Viet Nam.• Rice growing dominates the sector, although diversification into fruits and vegetables and uplandand tree crops is occurring.• Lowland rice fed by rains and floods predominates, with irrigation common in some regions,particularly in the Mekong Delta, but rare in other regions.• Irrigation is expanding and intensifying across the four countries, but is faced with institutionaland natural resource-related constraints.• These are great variations in productivity, with rice yields in upland Lao PDR about 1.55tonnes/ha, compared to approximately 5 tonnes/ha for the Viet Nam Mekong Delta. Productivityis linked to the quality of agricultural inputs including land, irrigation, seed, fertilisers andpesticides, as well as supporting services such as finance and distribution networks.• The upland regions of the basin, with less favourable environmental and market conditions,tend to have lower productivity levels and higher incidences of rural poverty than the moreprosperous lowland and floodplain regions.• Shifting cultivation is a very common upland farming system, which although environmentallysustainable under low population densities, appears to be exceeding carrying capacity and causingenvironmental degradation in many areas.176