About the Project

Project Title: Smallholder farmer decision-making and technology adoption in southern Lao PDR: opportunities and constraints

Project aim: To improve adoption by smallholder farmers of proven technology and management innovations. The key research questions are:

RQ1. What influences smallholder adoption of proven technologies?

RQ2. How can stakeholder networks be engaged and mobilised to enable smallholder farmers to apply proven technologies?

Project objectives:

1. Identify the drivers and constraints affecting smallholder decision-making with respect to adoption of proven technologies.

2. Develop solution strategies/methods to improve use of proven innovations by farmers.

Project Teams:

JCU

Dr Kim Alexander leads the project taking responsibility as Australia based team leader for coordinating efforts in research design, collaboration with team members and stakeholders, primary point of contact for ACIAR program leader and ensure timely documentation. As a senior social research scientist, she is be responsible for qualitative research activities and analysis and will work with female Laotian interpreters to ensure the views of women and implications for women and children are voiced and emphasised throughout the project. Research experience over the last decade includes social aspects of agricultural change and rural and urban development in South East Asia specifically in Laos, Philippines and Indonesia.

Prof Peter Case takes responsibility for administrative matters (managing payments, partnerships, sub-contracts, etc.) at JCU (the commissioned organisation), oversees financial disbursements in Laos, and coordinates writing and timely submission of ACIAR reports. He has been the Project Leader for ASEM/2011/075, ‘Enhancing District Delivery and Extension Management in Lao PDR’ and programme adviser for a malaria control and elimination program in Vietnam, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Dr Garry Greenhalgh is an international business strategy and performance improvement consultant known for making change happen in food supply chains. He will carry out the farmer survey concerning the propensity of farmers to adopt proven innovations. In addition Garry will the lead the development of solution strategies (principles, frameworks and tools) for use in concurrent and future projects and how these will be introduced into concurrent projects.

Dr Silva Larson will supervise the collation of production function/livelihood models developed by previous ACIAR projects with the secondary data and will be responsible for the delivery of this information (Objective 1.5) as both stand-alone information and an input to participatory modelling activities. Silva will also, in collaboration with other team members and stakeholders, develop the project’s stakeholder engagement and communication strategies and will be responsible, under guidance from the project leaders, for designing and managing stakeholder engagements throughout the project with support from the Lao project officer.

Mr. Tom Jovanovic is an experienced GIS mapping specialist using ARCGIS, the most commonly and widespread used GIS computer mapping software in the world today. He has been an employee at CSIRO and will supervise the use of the novel voting equipment, ensure data storage and security as required by JCU Ethics, during the data collection phase, and will work with NAFRI staff to create maps where necessary using advanced mapping techniques

CSIRO

Dr Magnus Moglia is currently a team leader in the Cities Program, CSIRO Land and Water Flagship which has a national and international portfolio of research projects, in partnerships with community, government and industry groups. Magnus will contribute to this project primarily by developing the Bayesian Network model for high level integrated assessments as well as undertaking statistical analysis. He will also take part in the gaming/simulation activities to develop practical strategies and contribute to the overall project in assisting with survey design and analysis and assist in stakeholder and project partner workshops.

HEMA Consulting Ltd

Dr Pascal Perez is the founding Director of HEMA Consulting, a small company developing participatory modelling and serious game solutions for collective decision-making or conflict resolution around the World. Relevant applications include groundwater management in the Republic of Kiribati (AFD-funded), coastal development and coral reef protection in Mexico (WB-funded) or farming practices and climate adaptation in Western Australia (WA-DAF-funded). Pascal has a 25-year experience in conducting environmental management projects in Western Africa, South East Asia and South Pacific. Pascal will be responsible for the delivery of the Collective Behavioural Elicitation workshops (Objective 1) and the Collective Scenario Exploration workshops (Objective 2) and associated outputs

Ms. Anne Giger-Dray is a Research Fellow at the Swiss Institute of Technology (ETH Zürich) in the Forestry for Development (ForDev Group). She has a background in environmental management. She has a 15-year experience in applied research projects dedicated to renewable resources management and conflict resolution with a strong emphasis on community participation and engagement in order to promote ecological sustainability. She develops and uses dedicated tools to support stakeholders’ engagement such as agent-based models and role-playing games. Anne will assist Pascal Perez in tailoring and running the Collective Behavioural Elicitation workshops (Objective 1) and the Collective Scenario Exploration workshops (Objective 2).

National Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute (NAFRI)

Dr Thavone Inthavong is the Director of Agriculture Policy Research Centre, at NAFRI and is well placed to collaborate in this research and has been chosen to be the NAFRI representative team leader by Dr Bounthong Bouahom, Director General, NAFRI.

Dr Bountom Khounsy is assisting NAFRI as a contracted independent consultant alongside the three main institutional partners (NAFRI, NUOL, and DAEC) to identify mechanisms for multi-disciplinary team working arrangements and will be located at NAFRI. Dr Khounsy has played a significant role in several overseas projects and is well qualified to support our project objectives. She will attend to logistics such as field trips and team meetings, organise materials, manage equipment and facilitate information flows between researchers from Laos and Australia. In the past Dr Khounsy was an interpreter and field officer for Dr Kim Alexander during her PhD studies in Northern Laos 2003-2007 on changes to farming systems, accompanying her to villages and conducting interviews, focus groups and semi-structured interviews with farmers and other stakeholders.

Ms. Manithaythip assigned by NAFRI to cross-disciplinary in-country team as she has a Master’s Degree in Livelihood Studies.

National University of Lao PDR (NUOL)

Dr Silinthone Sacklokham (Vice Dean) is director of the Rural Economics and Food Technology of the Faculty of Agriculture, NOUL. She is lecturer in farming systems, agrarian systems and agricultural policies and also had experience in supervising research projects on farming systems, land use and land management, land titling as well as farmers’ organisation and value chain of agricultural products. She is also member of research proposal review committee of Lao Agricultural Research Fund funded by ACIAR. In this project, she will be responsible for desktop reviews, selection of the case study sites, training enumerators and overseeing the surveys, data analysis and report writing. She will also provide the input to the technical workshops, preparation of policy briefs and annual reports.

Assoc Prof Somphanh Pasouvang assigned by NUoL to cross-disciplinary in-country team.

Department of Agriculture, Extension and Cooperatives (DAEC)/ Department of Technical Extension and Agriculture Processing (TDEAP)

Mr. Somxay Sisanonh will direct and review project strategies to ensure that the guidelines and tools fit with the emerging roles of the new DAEC, through targeted field visits and consultation with the in-country team. He will authorize and facilitate contact with other GoL agencies and arrange key project meetings and workshops as necessary. He will facilitate feedback of the project to MAF through participating in the Steering Committee to meet annually.

Mr. Khamphouvieng Phouisombath, Deputy Head Planning Division, will be assigned by DAEC to cross-disciplinary in-country team.