Until recently, and unlike most other countries in the
Southeast Asian region, Laos has been land rich and has
not faced a squeeze on livelihoods connected with rapid
population growth. However today, in the survey villages
at least, land is a resource in short supply. This is
particularly true in terms of access to lowland rice land.
Livelihood system 1 outlined in Table 4, based on
abundant land and easy access, is increasingly untenable
at the village level, although there may be individual
households who can continue to operate broadly traditionally.
In general, villages/households have responded
in one of two ways. In some cases they have been able to
intensify agricultural production, embracing new agricultural
technologies and integrating more fully into
systems of market exchange. Ban Nam Ang, discussed
above, is an example of such a village, as are many of
the households in the Sang Thong survey villages.