Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 13.1
ITPP project credit summary (ADB 2005a: 38)
Administrative Area
No. of
Households
a
Individuals
Enterprises
Total
Number
of Loans
Total Area
Planted
Amount of
Loans (KN
million)
Vientiane
Municipality
17
46
6
69
5,402
39,108
Vientiane Province 208 33 0 241 1,159 2,668
Borikhamxay 729 50 1 780 2,359 5,987
Khammoun 0 1 3 4 245 1,439
Savannakhet 565 24 0 589 1,889 4,855
Saravan 502 2 0 504 939 2,070
Champassak 475 10 0 485 904 2,114
Total 2,496 166 10 2,672 12,897 58,240
a
Loans to households were mostly done through group loans, so the total number of loans for this
borrower class is recorded as less than the beneficiary households.
support of a Preparatory Project Technical Assistance (PPTA) grant, to prepare the
framework for a Phase 2 project.
Table 13.1 details the geographic pattern of project disbursements. The data
shows a significant portion of the total project loan portfolio was extended to bor-
rowers from Vientiane Municipality - where 46 individual planters and six enter-
prises accounted for a majority of the total funding extended. Hundreds of
smallholder families were also enlisted into the project in locations extending into
the deep south of Lao PDR, including as far as Champassak and Salavane
provinces.
13.3.3
ADB ITPP Project Evaluations
Throughout its operational period, external observers had been critical of the ITPP
project in Laos (see Lang 2001, 2003, 2006). This critique identified the significant
subsidies extended to plantation companies, the potential adverse ecological effects
of eucalyptus, a lack of public consultation by the ADB, and the potential problems
for local livelihoods when swidden agricultural land was zoned for industrial plan-
tations. Even projects critics however presumed that the majority of the eucalyptus
trees planted through the ITPP would result in generally productive plantations.
Without approvals from higher-level officials, independent researchers and civil
society actors can experience difficulties in gaining access to research sites in rural
Laos. Thus, there was little independent information available concerning how the
project was progressing in specific communities.
Internal ADB sponsored project field surveys conducted in 2003 began to reveal
a series of concerning problems with the yields of the smallholder plantations. Lao
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