Looking to the future, there is reason to believe that
Ban Nam Ang will be able to sustain its farming-based livelihood strategy, for the medium term at least, especially
if irrigation can be introduced. This will involve,
though, engaging more thoroughly with the market and
with new agricultural technologies. In Ban Phon Hai, the
current context and future prospects are very different.
Some 80% of villagers have to engage in off-farm work of
one kind or another to meet their basic needs and agriculture
represents a subsidiary element of the village
economy. Households depend on off-farm work and the
engagement with the non-farm sector has been driven by
necessity, not by choice. It is an example of distress
diversification (see below). There is little scope for
intensification of agricultural production to the extent
that it would lift the village and most of its households
into food sufficiency.