ບດສົົົົ ງລວມກັັັັ ່່່່ ຽວກບຜະລັັັັ ດຕະພິິິິ ນຊັັັັ ວະນາໆີີີີ ພນກະສັັັັ ກິິິິ າໍໍໍໍ ຂອງ ສປປ ລາວ Profile of Lao Agro-Biodiversity Products Nr.4: Crispy River Weed ໄຄ , ໄຄແຜ່ ນ Draft, 19 August 2016 Vientiane, 19 August 2016 Lao WomensUnion, Luang Prabang Table of Contents 1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 1 2. Botanical Characteristics of River Weed ......................................................................................... 1 3. River weed in the eco-system ......................................................................................................... 3 3.1. Changes in Eco-system and Impacts on River Weed ........................................................................ 3 4. Distribution of River Weed and Crispy River Weed Production in Lao PDR, particularly in Luang Prabang Province ..................................................................................................................................... 4 4.1. Distribution of River Weed inLuang Phabang .................................................................................. 4 4.2. Crispy River Weed production Resources ........................................................................................ 6 4.2.1. Luang Prabang Province .......................................................................................................... 6 4.2.2. Houaphan Province ............................................................................................................... 13 4.2.3. Xiengkhouang Province ......................................................................................................... 13 4.2.4. Other provinces ..................................................................................................................... 15 5. Crispy River Weed Production ...................................................................................................... 15 6. Nutrition Data of River Weed ....................................................................................................... 18 7. Economic Estimation of Crispy River Weed Production ............................................................... 20 8. Value Chain of Making, Processing and Marketing for CRW in Luang Prabang Province ............ 21 8.1. In Luang Prabang Province ............................................................................................................. 21 8.2. In Xiengkouang province ................................................................................................................ 23 9. Opportunity, Threats and Challenges for Crispy River Weed Production .................................... 25 9.1. Opportunity .................................................................................................................................... 25 9.2. Constrains and Chalenges .............................................................................................................. 27 9.2.1. Recommendations for the Crispy river weed production groups ......................................... 31 9.2.2. Recommendations for the involved private sector ............................................................... 32 9.2.3. Recommendations for linking with the private sector organization ..................................... 32 9.2.4. Recommendations for the development organization support ........................................... 32 Annex 1 : References ............................................................................................................................ 35 Annex 2: Village profile, Population and Experiences on Crispy river weed production process in 25 crw prodcution villages, Luang Prabang Province ........................................................................................ 36 Annex 3 : Experiences and People’s Methodology of Crispy river weed production ........................... 38 List of Data Tables Table 1: List of Rivers on which Raw River weed are collected by 25 villages for Crispy River Weed production in Luang Prabang Province ............................................................................................................. 4 Table 2: List of Villages Producing Crispy River Weed in Luang Prabang Province ........................................... 6 Table 3: Proportion of Families Producing Crispy River weed versus Total number of Families of 25 in Luang Prabang Province ............................................................................................................................................... 7 Table 4: Profile of Crispy River Weed Production in 25 Villages in Luang Prabang Province............................ 8 Table 5: List of Villages Participating TABI Activity on Using River weed for Production of Sustainable ........ 13 Table 6: Data on Outputs of Crispy River Weed of 9 Villages in 2 districts of Xiengkhouang from December 2014 to March 2015 ........................................................................................................................................ 14 Table 7: Products quantity and number of families prepare CRW under TABI project in Xiengkouang in 2014- 2015 ................................................................................................................................................................. 14 Table 8: Nutrition Value of River Weed ........................................................................................................... 19 Table 9: Production Cost and Net Profit of Crispy river Weed Production ..................................................... 20 Table 10: Average Income/family/year from Crispy river weed production of 4 villages in LPB province ..... 21 Table 11: Number of family, Quantity & Value of production/Selling Raw RW/CRW in 25 villages of LPB province ........................................................................................................................................................... 22 Table 12: Potentials and Opportunity for Crispy river weed production in 25 villages of LPB province ........ 26 Table 13: Weak points and Constraints in the Crispy river weed production in Luang Prabang Province ..... 28 Table 14: Problems, Potentials and Causes related to Crispy river weed production 21 villages of LPB province ........................................................................................................................................................... 29 Table 15: Pending issues or weak points in implementing the promotion activity on crispy river weed production in 9 villages of 2 districts in Xiengkhouang province during the year 2014-2015. ....................... 31 Table 16: Proposals on the needs of CRW in 21 villages in Luang Prabang Province for promotion of commercial CRW production........................................................................................................................... 33 List of Figures Figure 1 : River weed of Cladophora family ...................................................................................................... 2 Figure 2: River weed of Microspora and Spirogyra family ................................................................................ 2 Figure 3: Map of location of villages collecting river weed, making crispy river weed in Houaphan province ......................................................................................................................................................................... 13 Figure 4: Crispy river weed products ............................................................................................................... 15 Figure 5: Steps in Production of crispy river weed .......................................................................................... 18 Figure 6:The feature of crispy river weed produced in Phongsaly and Oudomxay provinces ........................ 18 Figure 7: Chain value of raw river weed and Crispy river weed in Xiengkhouang province ........................... 24 1. Introduction The Lao PDR has plenty biodiversity of both terrestrial and aquatic ones. As for the aquatic biodiversity, river weed is an important biodiversity especially in eco-system, social and economic aspects. In the aquatic eco- system, river weed is a starting point of food cycle for the herbivores and small living things which then becomes food for the carnivore further. In addition, the river weed also has important function in producing vital oxygen for sustaining of big animals, small animals. River weed is also important for the society. River weed is food with high nutrient value and people can find it easily. People of many local areas used to have indigenous knowledge and have inherited it for many generations in preparing river weed as food in different methods and forms for their consumption. Among others, the people in some areas of Luang Prabang and Oudomxay Provinces historically have an outstanding unique in the society (LWU-LPB 2015). Up to now, beside it’s regarded as the high-value nutrition food; general people still can collect it from the natural sources for their family consumption. In some local areas, river weed has become the commercial goods which people bring it for sales in form of raw river weed and processed already, especially the crispy river weed which the market has high demand. The survey in 2015 has found that