Impacts of Jatropha Plantation on Smallholders
This research examines the socio-economic impacts of expanding jatropha plantations on smallholder farmers in Lao PDR. It explores how biofuel development affects livelihoods, labour, land use, and local communities, providing recommendations to support sustainable and equitable plantation management.
Jatropha plantation is spreading significantly in Lao PDR. The country’s oil imports are currently at approximately 350 million litres of fuel per year and rising, thus increasing the pressure to develop practical alternatives. Jatropha is a crop which can produce biodiesel, grows well in parts of Lao PDR, and is becoming popular in many other countries such as India, USA, Burma, Thailand, and Nicaragua. It has been grown as bio-fencing and for traditional medicine, but not commercially. However, the Lao government and many private companies there have recently become interested in growing jatropha curcas.
One such company is the KOLAO Farm and Bio Energy Company, the largest jatropha plantation company in Lao PDR It plans to plant 50,000 ha for Vientiane province and 120,000 ha across the country. Production also needs large amounts of labour for land preparation, planting, maintaining and harvesting. The labour is drawn from small-holders in local areas. Proper studies of the impacts are needed in order to avoid unforeseen risks to small holders and adapt production techniques. This study aims to determine certain basic socio-economic backgrounds of small holder farmers in jatropha plantation areas in Vientiane Province, in order to better understand their situational contexts and the potential positive and negative impacts of jatropha plantation.
The scope of the study extends to management principles, capability building activities, skills support programs and materials, and corporate infrastructure to ensure that locals involved in growing this crop for the company, or providing labour, are not unfairly disadvantaged. The research gives particular consideration to displacement of previous economic or subsistence activities including cultivation of rice (irrigated or swidden) and collection of NTFPs from previously undeveloped lands.
Jatropha plantation is spreading significantly in Lao PDR. The country’s oil imports are currently at approximately 350 million litres of fuel per year and rising, thus increasing the pressure to develop practical alternatives. Jatropha is a crop which can produce biodiesel, grows well in parts of Lao PDR, and is becoming popular in many other countries such as India, USA, Burma, Thailand, and Nicaragua. It has been grown as bio-fencing and for traditional medicine, but not commercially. However, the Lao government and many private companies there have recently become interested in growing jatropha curcas.
One such company is the KOLAO Farm and Bio Energy Company, the largest jatropha plantation company in Lao PDR It plans to plant 50,000 ha for Vientiane province and 120,000 ha across the country. Production also needs large amounts of labour for land preparation, planting, maintaining and harvesting. The labour is drawn from small-holders in local areas. Proper studies of the impacts are needed in order to avoid unforeseen risks to small holders and adapt production techniques. This study aims to determine certain basic socio-economic backgrounds of small holder farmers in jatropha plantation areas in Vientiane Province, in order to better understand their situational contexts and the potential positive and negative impacts of jatropha plantation.
The scope of the study extends to management principles, capability building activities, skills support programs and materials, and corporate infrastructure to ensure that locals involved in growing this crop for the company, or providing labour, are not unfairly disadvantaged. The research gives particular consideration to displacement of previous economic or subsistence activities including cultivation of rice (irrigated or swidden) and collection of NTFPs from previously undeveloped lands.
