In Laos, the agricultural sector accounts for 29.9% of the country’s GDP, and approximately 70-80% of the population is dependent on the sector for its livelihoods. The importance of agriculture to both the people and the economy makes the sector a decisively vulnerable one. Flooding disasters in particular are responsible for yearly losses in agricultural production of hundreds of millions of USD. As climate change is gaining pace and disastrous natural events increase in frequency, putting the country’s main economic sector at greater risk, farmers need to adapt to the changing conditions and build resilience fast.
Laos’s TNA recognizes this urgency by prioritizing the agricultural sector and the need to support and expand technologies for integrated cropping and agroforestry to help farmers adapt. These technologies are part of the Climate Smart Agriculture project, which has been aligned with the TNA objectives by investing in strategies, community-led plans, physical assets and technologies, institutional capacities, technical assistance, integrated land-use planning, crop diversification and much more.
By integrating climate-smart land-use approaches and practices into land-use planning in the northern uplands of Laos, the project will enhance the capacity of many farmers and local communities to implement climate change adaptation technologies, as well as providing incentives for all land and natural resource users to adopt them.
The Climate Smart Agriculture project was approved for implementation in 2021 and is being supported by the GEF with a project grant of 3.5 million USD and co-financing amounting to 15 million USD. The co-financing of the project comes from government bodies, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the World Food Program, the World Bank, the FAO, the Swiss NGO Helvetas and the German Corporation for International Cooperation. The project will be implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in conjunction with the FAO.
About the Technology Needs Assessment project
The Technology Needs Assessment project, a major initiative funded by the Global Environment Facility, is being implemented by the United Nations Environment Programme and the UNEP DTU Partnership. Close to 100 countries have, since 2009, joined the TNA project.
TNAs provide an effective and solid foundation upon which countries can both scale up and implement action on climate technologies in their efforts to pursue the targets they agreed under the Paris Agreement, as well as in reaching their national Sustainable Development Goals.
Read more about the TNA Project: https://tech-action.unepdtu.org/
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