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Agroecology Keyword: Soil biological activity

Service-Smart Shade Trees: Choosing Species & Spacing for Tea Producers in Northern Laos

This research brief reveals how smart shade design can make Lao tea farms more productive and resilient. Across nine plots in Xieng Khouang, results show that trees shape everything: yield dips close to trunks, but tea quality and soil protection soar under moderate shade. Not all trees are equal, Mak-Kho (Livistonia speciosa) stands out as a top performer. The takeaway: space trees 3-6 m apart and choose service-rich species for better cups and safer soils.

Strengthening Soil Health Monitoring in Laos: A Pathway to Sustainable Food Security

– Soil is involved in 13 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
– In Laos, there are worrying signs of widespread soil degradation threatening national food security.
– Yet, there is no systematic monitoring of soil health, making it impossible for concerned governmental institutions to prioritize action.
– Soil health is not the same as soil fertility. The heavy use of fertilisers can cause a soil to be rich in Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), and Potassium (K) but not sustain agricultural production.
– Soil fauna is involved in most of soil functions e.g. nutrient cycling, soil structure maintenance, carbon transformations, soil-born pest population regulation… There is a need to go beyond soil properties assessment to assess soil biological functioning
– Low-cost and easy-to-use toolkits allowing to assess soil health exist and have been successfully tested in Laos. They should be integrated into a national framework for the monitoring of soil health.
– Life comes from the soil, let’s monitor soil health to better protect it!