Effectiveness of Rubber Plantation on Villagers' livelihood Improvement in the Northern Part of Laos

Rubber plantation processes had been involved with villagers' livelihood improvement as well as poverty reduction in Laos, the rubber plantation had been introduced among Lao farmers in 2000s. This study investigated to examine the effectiveness of rubber planting activities on the poverty criterion that Lao government had focused on the enhancement of local livelihood. 3 villages in Luangnamtha province were selected to investigate their outputs from the rubber plantation such as smallholder planting, contract farming and villagers who had become the employees in the rubber plantation field of investors. Comparison study on the sample households' livelihood in each period (before, during or after rubber plantation) for 3 selected villages, it can be concluded that smallholder planting is evaluated as a rubber planting model with positive impact on their livelihood improvement; and that cases of contract fanning and employing of villagers in the rubber plantation field of investors are challenging to their livelihood improvement.