Overview

Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR) is a mountainous, landlocked Southeast Asian country, 85% of which lies in the Lower Mekong basin. The agriculture sector of the country contributes about 16% to the country’s GDP and employs around 58% of the working population.

About half of the country’s households are composed of smallholder, subsistence farmers in which rice is majorly cultivated. Most of their lowland rainfed and irrigated rice-growing areas can be found in Vientiane, Savannakhet, and Champasak Plains. Lao PDR is known for their glutinous or sticky rice which accounts for 90% of the production in the country. Khao niaw, as Laotians call their sticky rice, is a way of life. However, intense weather variabilities due to frequent drought and floods have threatened national rice production.

In 2025, FAO reported that the Government of Lao PDR aims to improve its agricultural sectors’ growth by 2.5%, aiming to improve nutritional outcomes, agricultural production, and securing market access regionally and internationally. Specifically, Lao PDR’s government is prioritizing the conservation of rice biodiversity for improved sustainability, developing high quality and productive rice varieties suited for local environments, improving seed systems, improving agronomy, plant protection, mechanization, and post-harvest processes for value addition, and improving irrigation systems to increase overall irrigated rice areas.

The first memorandum of understanding (MOU) between Lao PDR and IRRI was signed in 1987. Heightened collaborative work began when the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) supported the Lao PDR-IRRI Research and Training Project from 1990 to 2007. This project aimed to improve and strengthen rice research capacity within the country and included research support, development, and training. An offshoot of the project was the development of a national rice research network, which, by the end of 1995, included all provinces of the country.

On 12 January 2007, Dr. Sitaheng Rasphone, Lao PDR Minister for Agriculture and Forestry, and Dr. Robert Zeigler, IRRI director general, signed a memorandum of understanding to establish a regional hub in Lao PDR and as a result, the IRRI-Greater Mekong Subregion office in Lao PDR was formally opened. The office has since become the IRRI-Lao PDR office.