Improving water and nutrient management to enable double cropping in the rice growing lowlands of Lao PDR and Cambodia

This project developed diversification and intensification options for crop systems to improve the nutrition, profitability and sustainability of rural communities in southern Lao and Cambodia. The emphasis was on improving the sustainable production of short-duration crop and forages during the dry-season by optimising water and nutrition management.

ACIAR researchers aimed to establish dry season crop and forage production as an intrinsic component small holder farming system in the lower Mekong.

This project was investigating the potential of several dry season, high value crops, the compatibility of local soils, and these crops' water requirements. This project followed on from previous ACIAR projects that quantified the regional availability of water to sustain dry season crops and of method to better use water to meet crop needs.