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Laos
Index
Only about 150,000 hectares were planted with major
crops other
than rice in 1990, an increase from approximately 80,000
hectares
in 1980. Principal nonrice crops include
cardamom--sometimes
considered a forestry product--coffee, corn, cotton,
fruit, mung
beans, peanuts, soybeans, sugarcane, sweet potatoes,
tobacco, and
vegetables. The only crop produced for export in
substantial
quantities is coffee. Although the total area planted to
these
crops is small relative to the area planted to rice, it
increased
from 10 percent of total cropped area in 1980 to about 18
percent
in 1990. Although the increase in part reflects the drop
in rice
production during the drought years, it also demonstrates
some
success in the government's push to diversify crops.
Yields for all
the major crops except coffee, vegetables, and
cardamom--for which
some figures are only available from 1986--increased
gradually
between 1980 and 1990, most notably corn (by 70 percent),
fruit (by
65 percent), peanuts (by 28 percent), and mung beans (by
25
percent) (see
table 5, Appendix). Despite increasing
agricultural
output, however, Laos is still an importer of food,
heavily
dependent on food aid.
Statistics for agricultural production do not reflect
either
the nature of the subsistence agricultural economy or the
importance of opium to the hill economy. Opium, legal in
Laos and
once even accepted as a tax payment, is a lucrative cash
crop for the
Lao Sung (see Glossary)--including the
Hmong (see Glossary)--who
have resisted government efforts to replace opium production
with the production of other goods, for which the market
is much less profitable
(see Upland Lao Society
, ch. 2). Opium
production provides the funds necessary to the household when there
is a rice
deficiency, common among swidden farmers. Crop
substitution
programs, however, have had some effect, and to some
extent tougher
laws against drug trafficking and government cooperation
on
training programs have also
contributed to reduced output.
In 1994 Laos remained the third largest producer of
illicit opium
for the world market, according to United States drug
enforcement
officials
(see Narcotics and Counternarcotics Issues
, ch.
5). These
officials estimate the potential yield of opium declined
47
percent--from 380 tons in 1989 when a memorandum of
understanding
on narcotics cooperation between the United States and
Laos was
signed--to an estimated 180 tons in 1993. The 22 percent
decline in
opium production in 1993 from 1992, however, was largely
attributed
to adverse weather conditions.
Data as of July 1994
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