Author : Chanthavong, Anongsack

Summary : The study determined the practices of the households and the communities in attaining food security in Long District, Luang Namtha, Lao PDR. Specifically, it aimed to: 1) describe the social and economic characteristics of the respondents, and the natural and physical resources in the villages; 2) describe the household and community practices aimed at attaining food security; 3) determine the food security situation in the study sites based on food availability, access and utilization, 4) determine the relationship between Socio-demographic and economic characteristics with household and community level practices on food security; 5) determine the relationship between household and community level practices and food security. The study was conducted in six villages in Long District, Luang Namtha, Lao PDR. From these villages, 122 farmers were randomly selected as survey respondents. Six FGDs (one per village) with five participants per FGD were conducted to validate the result of the survey and gather data on community activities. Six villages officials and two district officials were purposively selected for the key informant interviews. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used in the data analyses. The respondents are adults, males, married, unschooled and farmers like their spouses, resettled, residents in their village for more than 20 years, have small families and have low income. The majority have streams/rivers near their village, fertile black soil. non-timber forest products, pigs and chickens, manual farm tools, unregistered lands, cellular phones, motorcycles and potable water. However, majority have no irrigation system and electricity. To attain food security at the household level, the respondents plant upland rice using the native varieties and manual tools, raise swine and poultry in traditional way, decline loaning money, and practice husband-and-wife equal sharing on farming and household tasks. At the community level, they availed food distribution programs in the past. Livelihood programs are scarce. Based on food availability, access, and utilization, all of the villages under study are food secure. Among them, Chamai is the most secure. Household level practices on food security are related to the respondents' sex,educational attainment, length of stay in the area, and total household income. Meanwhile, community level practices are generally correlated with the respondents' age, sex, educational attainment, length of stay in the area, household size, and total household income. Food security is related to the variety of wetland rice planted, quantity of upland rice planted, method of raising pigs, and method of raising poultry. Sufficiency of income and level of sufficiency of crop production are significantly related to access to livelihood programs. Generally, food security is significantly related to all of the community level practices.