Wild Foods and Nutrition: Iron

Wild plants like moringa, water spinach, bamboo shoots, and wild mushrooms, as well as animals like snails, crickets, and small fish, provide iron that helps keep your blood and body healthy. In the next pages, you will find a selection of wild food species and a few recipes showing how you can prepare them.

Wild Foods and Nutrition: Vitamin A

Wild food species also provide vitamin A. Wild plants like yanang, climbing wattle, balsam apples, spiny amaranth, and Asiatic pennywort are rich in beta carotene, which the body can convert to Vitamin A. Eating these traditional foods helps families stay healthy. In the next pages, you will find a selection of wild food species and […]

Ban Jaeng Cooperative

In 2009, a small rice seed group in Jaeng village was created with the goal to support local farmers with improved seed quality. Over time, it grew into a strong cooperative built on solidarity, and shared ambition. Ban Jaeng Cooperative was officially established in 2018. This legal recognition was an important milestone in opening opportunities […]

Bounchanh Mekaloun

Bounchanh Mekaloun, Deputy Head of the Forest Research Center at the National Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute (NAFRI), says that forests are far more than landscapes: they are living sources of food, health, and opportunity. After graduating from the Faculty of Forestry in Vietnam, he returned to Laos equipped not only with academic knowledge but […]

Yordxam Company Ltd.

Yordxam Co., Ltd. is a pioneering enterprise dedicated to promoting Khao Kai Noi, or “Little Chicken Rice,” renowned as the finest sticky rice in Laos. Little Chicken Rice (Oryza sativa L. subsp. japonica Shig.Kato), locally known as Khao Kai Noi, is a traditional Lao sticky rice celebrated for its unique shape, large grains, fragrant aroma, […]

Lao Sesame Oil

Lao Sesame Oil is produced from locally grown sesame seeds using a cold-pressing method and contains no chemical preservatives or added colors. Viengsavath Vilaythong, who is passionate about health, has observed a growing trend among Lao consumers toward healthier food choices. However, options for nutritious products, particularly oils, are limited. While olive oil is widely […]

Panyanivej farm

Panyanivej farm, located in Ban Samkhet, Sikhottabong , Vientiane, Laos,  began its activities in 2008 and was officially registered as an agriculture company in 2016. The farm focuses on organic cultivation, retail and wholesale sales, with an emphasis on kitchen garden vegetables, rice, and oyster mushrooms. The farm also offers learning programs on agriculture and […]

Rapid Assessment of Food Security and Agriculture in Lao PDR

While there have been just 19 confirmed cases of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) to date in Lao PDR, the country – as with other countries around the world – has been affected by secondary social and economic impacts as a result of measures instituted to stop the spread of the virus. This survey seeks […]

Case study on orchid exports from the Lao PDR: Recommendations for using the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora to increase sustainable orchid trade.

This report is a product of the project “Piloting CITES Implementation in Lao PDR: Strengthening Institutions through Case Studies”. Supported by the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation (SDC), this initiative was carried out by IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) and partners, including the National University of Laos and TRAFFIC, in 2007-2008.The initiative provided […]

Highly efcient production of 2,3‑butanediol from xylose and glucose by newly isolated thermotolerant Cronobacter sakazakii

Background: 2,3-Butanediol (2,3-BD), a valuable compound used for chemicals, cosmetics, pesticides and pharma‑ ceuticals, has been produced by various microbes. However, no high-temperature fermentation of the compound at high productivity has been reported. Methods: Thermotolerant xylose-utilizing microbes were isolated from 6 diferent districts in Laos and screened for a low accumulation of xylitol in a […]