A MOULAMEIN farmer is launching an initiative that will change the way Lao farmers go about their business and the results could literally be life changing for them. Dr Leigh Vial resides in Swan Hill and runs the family farm at Moulamein, in southwestern NSW.
When he completed his schooling he went to study in the south-east Asian nation of Laos between 2008 and 2011, where he completed a PhD and broadened his knowledge and experience in Lao and Asian farming systems. He spent four years at the International Rice Research Institute, as a prominent global rice researcher. Dr Vial discovered the way the Lao farmers were transplanting seedlings by hand was becoming unviable.
Farmers must wait for enough rain to fi ll the rice bays and it takes the equivalent of 30 days of labour to transplant one hectare.
These traditional farming practices are no longer consistent with monsoon rains and the region’s economic development.
For more on this story, grab a copy of this Wednesday’s Guardian (June 8)
