Last year was a big year in a remote Houaphanh village, nestled in the lush green mountainous landscape of northern Lao PDR.
The villagers celebrated the inauguration of a vericomposting centre that uses earthworms to produce organic fertilizer to grow coffee.
For anyone outside the village, this might seem an unremarkable moment. But inside the village, it was a landmark event. To learn why, it helps to look at the bigger picture.
The lure of illicit crops
Lao PDR is one of the world’s largest producers of illicit opium poppy, which is used in drugs such as opium and heroin. And Houaphanh province is a national hotspot in this illicit trade.
Opium poppy can be profitable for local farmers, but it’s risky for them personally, and contributes to a violent drug trade that destabilizes societies. In a developing country such as Lao PDR, some farmers are willing to take the risk.
The trick is to make legal crops more attractive to farmers. That’s why the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) helped local farmers establish the Vanmai Coffee Cooperative, or Vanmai for short. A farmer-owned cooperative, Vanmai provides a viable alternative to opium poppy cultivation, by linking members to markets and allowing them to make more money by processing the coffee within the community.
The result: coffee can provide farmers in Lao PDR with income that exceeds previous income from the sale of opium. The cooperative also supports gender equality and environmental protection, making their work even more sustainable over time.
Currently, Vanmai is the only fairtrade-certified small-producer organization in northern Lao PDR. But they may provide a model of success for others to imitate.
Worms are the future
Keen to keep developing their business, Vanmai decided to invest in their future by establishing a vermicomposting centre. As one member, Nong Sengvida, says, “The composting is very good to improve our production of vegetables and the quality of our coffee.”
“Every family can participate in this,” says Kongchai Athithane, a UNODC agricultural extensionist, to a group of farmers gathered around. Kongchai provides daily training and other support to farmers on growing coffee. He explains how earthworms transform organic waste into nutrient-rich compost. Every bit of compost is used as fertilizer, meaning that farmers don’t have to buy from elsewhere.
The benefits of earthworm-based composting are many. Not least of all, it will enrich the soil, reduce waste, and increase environmental sustainability. Importantly, it will maintain healthy coffee plantations and eliminate the farmers’ dependency on external supplies.
Farmers here are providing a model for others around the country and the region: banding together into worker-owned cooperatives to grow legal crops that will help them turn a profit, and help Lao PDR become more prosperous over time.
The worms are a metaphor for the project, says UNODC’s Kongchai Athithane: “The worms consume waste and produce fertilizer that can help grow more crops and sustain more farmers and their families over time. That’s the cycle of life in miniature. The Vanmai cooperative is tapping into this cycle and building a future for generations to come. That’s a model for other farmers around the country and the region.”
Learn more about UNODC’s work on alternative development here.
Watch this video to learn more about how UNODC promotes alternative crops.
