Co-designing Agroforestry Models in Nam Tien

Local officials in Nam Tien exploring their forest landscape to prepare for the agroforestry demonstration site. Photo: Pin Pravalprukskul

Monoculture cash cropping has become a part of everyday life around the Nam Tien Provincial Protection Forest, which spans around 4,300 hectares in Sayaboury province, Lao PDR. While the growing of cassava, maize, watermelons and bananas has generated income for local communities, fluctuating prices have left farmers struggling to find economic sustainability. At the same time, the continual expansion of these crops has led to deforestation, biodiversity loss and soil degradation. To replace monoculture cash cropping with better alternatives, the Wyss Academy for Nature’s Hub Southeast Asia is co-designing agroforestry models with local and regional partners.

Such models aim to integrate trees on farmland for landscape restoration and to generate viable income for communities. In January 2025, a five-day participatory agroforestry workshop was hosted to equip our partners at the Agricultural Technical Service Center (ATSC) under the Sayaboury Provincial Agriculture and Forestry Office (PAFO) with applied agroforestry knowledge.

The workshop used a hands-on approach to agroforestry system design, expanding the participants’ imaginative horizons of alternative forms of agriculture. Agroforestry integrates farming with the conservation of trees and, as a result, improves productivity and soil quality and enhances biodiversity within the landscape. The participants practiced selecting tree and crop species based on factors such as their goals, the land characteristics, and the interactions between species. Their designs were also informed by the Wyss Academy’s research on local preferences and market demand for agroforestry and non-timber forest products. Moreover, the participants gained inspiration from the Trees4All team from Thailand, who demonstrated their smallholder agroforestry-based landscape restoration model from northern Thailand.

Local officials in Nam Tien area working on agroforestry development with the Trees4All team. Photo: Pin Pravalprukskul

The next steps of this project will include in-depth value chain analyses to ensure that agroforestry systems meet market demands and generate viable income for local communities. More agroforestry training sessions in the coming months will help officials at the Agricultural Technical Service Center develop a demonstration site that will serve as an agroforestry learning center for local communities and schools as part of a broader outreach program.

This workshop came to life thanks to the Wyss Academy for Nature’s local and regional partners: the Provincial and District Agriculture and Forestry Offices (PAFO/DAFO), agroforestry experts from the Kunming Institute of Botany and World Agroforestry Center, market and value chain researchers (Enterprise & Development Consultants Co., Ltd. and Dr. Yang Bin), and RECOFTC Thailand. With this progress, Sayaboury moves another step closer to a nature positive and resilient future for the people and nature.