Wild cardamom in the land user's field (Sinnalong Khamvongchan)

Wild cardamom plantation for sustainable forest management (Lao People's Democratic Republic)

Description

Cardamom planting is a non timber forest product. Wild cardamom planting take place in traditional agroforestry systems based on shifting agriculture. The objectives of this technologies are to reach sustainable forest use and to generate household income.

Wild cardamom (Amomum subulatum) is a non-timber forest product (NTFP) that grows naturally in South Asia at elevations between 600 and 1.200 meters under the canopy of humid tropical forests (average temperature between 15-25 °C, PH level between 5,5- 6,5). In Laos, completely wild cardamom is still found in mountainous secondary forest at an elevation upwards of 700 meters, mainly near watercourses. In the past, it was commonly found by local people but never harvested or used. However, the international demand for cardamom began in 2000, and increased dramatically since then. This encouraged an increasing number of local villagers to collect cardamom from natural forest areas for sale to generate income for their households. This, however, caused depletion of cardamom in forest areas and also created conflicts among the people. Hence, the village people started to collect cardamom seedlings from the forest to cultivate them in their own upland fields, where farmers used to have upland rice cultivation before. Normally after rice harvest, they planted wild cardamom seedlings and led them grow up thogether with other wild plants and trees. It was treated as a kind of fallow. As a result of the domestication they were able to save time compared to the collection of wild cardamom in the forest. In 2002 it is estimated that two third of the harvest came from plantations. Cardamom cultivation on former fallow fields does not require significant investments – only hoes, knifes, and bags for collecting natural cardamom seedlings. One hectare of land requires around 15 days of seedling collection in the forest. The selected seedlings should reach an appropriate maturity (dark green leaves with 1 to 2 yellow leaves, height of stem about 1 to 2 meters) that promotes stem production, ensures high survival rate during transportation, and tolerates new environmental conditions at the planting site. Then, cardamom seedlings need to be replanted at latest two days after collection in the prepared plot. Typically, people plant cardamom during June – July with the beginning of wet season. Before in May, bush clearance is needed, but higher trees should be preserved at approximately 40 percent to provide a canopy for the required shadow to the cardamom. Vegetation removal necessitates observation and background knowledge of the individual land user. Cardamom planting should be established in lines and rows as follow: the space between the rows is 1 meter and 1.2 meters between the lines. The planting holes for the cardamom seedlings are 20 x 20 cm and 10 to 15 centimetres in depth. The space between the plants is 2 x 2 m, which facilitates the accessibility during weeding, maintenance, and harvest. It is recommended that farmers should plant three seedlings per hole. On average, there will be 2,500 holes/ha that requires a total of 7,500 seedlings per hectare. After that, fertile soil should be applied to refill the holes by moderate feet pressure at the end. Most farmers don’t use manure or fertilizers in their cardamom cultivations. Maintenance requires mainly the thinning of some tree branches to provide adequate sunlight as required by the cardamom plants. This can be implemented once a year after harvest. Cardamom plants provide fruits within four years after planting. During the establishment period till the first harvest the farmer’s workload increases as they have to collect still wild cardamom in the forests as well. Harvesting can be carried out annually during August – September with an average production of 320 kg per hectare for dried cardamom and approximately 578 kg of fresh cardamom. The market demand for this kind of cardamom is high, because it is internationally requested as medicinal product. Therefore, the local people are satisfied with the selling price offered by middle men who buy the production at 70,000 Kip/kg. Benefits from cardamom plantation include more income for local people, increase in forest cover, stabilization of slash and burn shifting cultivation and less impacts on agricultural lands. In addition, cardamom plantations help balancing the ecosystem and provide natural habitats for various animal and plant species.

Location

Location: Xayxay district, Attapue province, Lao People's Democratic Republic

No. of Technology sites analysed: 2-10 sites

Geo-reference of selected sites
  • 107.09553, 15.10652

Spread of the Technology: evenly spread over an area (approx. < 0.1 km2 (10 ha))

In a permanently protected area?:

Date of implementation: 2010; less than 10 years ago (recently)

Type of introduction
Wild cardamom tree and seed (Catherine Aubertin)
Wild cardamom tree in humid forest (Bounthanom Bouahom)

Classification of the Technology

Main purpose
  • improve production
  • reduce, prevent, restore land degradation
  • conserve ecosystem
  • protect a watershed/ downstream areas – in combination with other Technologies
  • preserve/ improve biodiversity
  • reduce risk of disasters
  • adapt to climate change/ extremes and its impacts
  • mitigate climate change and its impacts
  • create beneficial economic impact
  • create beneficial social impact
Land use

  • Cropland
    • Tree and shrub cropping
    Number of growing seasons per year: 1
Water supply
  • rainfed
  • mixed rainfed-irrigated
  • full irrigation

Purpose related to land degradation
  • prevent land degradation
  • reduce land degradation
  • restore/ rehabilitate severely degraded land
  • adapt to land degradation
  • not applicable
Degradation addressed
  • biological degradation - Bh: loss of habitats, Bq: quantity/ biomass decline
SLM group
  • agroforestry
  • ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction
SLM measures
  • vegetative measures - V1: Tree and shrub cover
  • management measures - M1: Change of land use type

Technical drawing

Technical specifications
- The land users prepare land during 5 days in May (selected cutting of trees and shrub)
- During June to July, when wet season starts, the cardamom seedlings are collected in the forest. To cover 1 hectare 2 persons have to collect during 15 days (during the time cardamom is flowering). The land users select mature cardamom seedlings of (1 to 2 meters in height).
- Planting holes are 20 x 20 cm, depth 10-15 cm, planting distance is 2 x 2 meters and per hole 3 seedlings are planted (2500 trees/ha).
- Cardamom here is cultivated at a slope rate of 15%. No fertilizers were in use in the example of this case study.
Author: Sinnalong Vongkhamchan

Establishment and maintenance: activities, inputs and costs

Calculation of inputs and costs
  • Costs are calculated: per Technology area (size and area unit: 1; conversion factor to one hectare: 1 ha = hactare)
  • Currency used for cost calculation: LAK
  • Exchange rate (to USD): 1 USD = 8000.0 LAK
  • Average wage cost of hired labour per day: 50.000
Most important factors affecting the costs
Labour and cost for manure are the most important factors.
Establishment activities
  1. Clearing soil from bushes and weeds (Timing/ frequency: April to May (before rain))
  2. Thining of tree branches (Timing/ frequency: Before planting)
  3. Collecting of cardamom seedlings (Timing/ frequency: June to July)
  4. Planting (Timing/ frequency: July)
Establishment inputs and costs (per 1)
Specify input Unit Quantity Costs per Unit (LAK) Total costs per input (LAK) % of costs borne by land users
Labour
Labour for land preparation person day 10.0 50000.0 500000.0 100.0
Labour for collection of seedlings person day 30.0 50000.0 1500000.0 100.0
Labour for planting person day 10.0 50000.0 500000.0 100.0
Equipment
Knief piece 3.0 60000.0 180000.0 100.0
Shovel piece 3.0 80000.0 240000.0 100.0
Blasket for cardamom tree piece 3.0 150000.0 450000.0 100.0
Bag piece 30.0 2500.0 75000.0 100.0
Fertilizers and biocides
Manure kg 2500.0 300.0 750000.0 100.0
Total costs for establishment of the Technology 4'195'000.0
Total costs for establishment of the Technology in USD 524.38
Maintenance activities
  1. Weeding (Timing/ frequency: March to April)
  2. Use manure (Timing/ frequency: September after harvesting)
  3. Harvesting (Timing/ frequency: August to September)
Maintenance inputs and costs (per 1)
Specify input Unit Quantity Costs per Unit (LAK) Total costs per input (LAK) % of costs borne by land users
Labour
Labour for weeding person day 10.0 50000.0 500000.0 100.0
Labour to use manure person day 10.0 50000.0 500000.0 100.0
Labour for harvesting person day 10.0 50000.0 500000.0 100.0
Fertilizers and biocides
Manure kg 300.0 2500.0 750000.0 100.0
Total costs for maintenance of the Technology 2'250'000.0
Total costs for maintenance of the Technology in USD 281.25

Natural environment

Average annual rainfall
  • < 250 mm
  • 251-500 mm
  • 501-750 mm
  • 751-1,000 mm
  • 1,001-1,500 mm
  • 1,501-2,000 mm
  • 2,001-3,000 mm
  • 3,001-4,000 mm
  • > 4,000 mm
Agro-climatic zone
  • humid
  • sub-humid
  • semi-arid
  • arid
Specifications on climate
Name of the meteorological station: District of Agriculture and Forestry Office in Xanxay district
Slope
  • flat (0-2%)
  • gentle (3-5%)
  • moderate (6-10%)
  • rolling (11-15%)
  • hilly (16-30%)
  • steep (31-60%)
  • very steep (>60%)
Landforms
  • plateau/plains
  • ridges
  • mountain slopes
  • hill slopes
  • footslopes
  • valley floors
Altitude
  • 0-100 m a.s.l.
  • 101-500 m a.s.l.
  • 501-1,000 m a.s.l.
  • 1,001-1,500 m a.s.l.
  • 1,501-2,000 m a.s.l.
  • 2,001-2,500 m a.s.l.
  • 2,501-3,000 m a.s.l.
  • 3,001-4,000 m a.s.l.
  • > 4,000 m a.s.l.
Technology is applied in
  • convex situations
  • concave situations
  • not relevant
Soil depth
  • very shallow (0-20 cm)
  • shallow (21-50 cm)
  • moderately deep (51-80 cm)
  • deep (81-120 cm)
  • very deep (> 120 cm)
Soil texture (topsoil)
  • coarse/ light (sandy)
  • medium (loamy, silty)
  • fine/ heavy (clay)
Soil texture (> 20 cm below surface)
  • coarse/ light (sandy)
  • medium (loamy, silty)
  • fine/ heavy (clay)
Topsoil organic matter content
  • high (>3%)
  • medium (1-3%)
  • low (<1%)
Groundwater table
  • on surface
  • < 5 m
  • 5-50 m
  • > 50 m
Availability of surface water
  • excess
  • good
  • medium
  • poor/ none
Water quality (untreated)
  • good drinking water
  • poor drinking water (treatment required)
  • for agricultural use only (irrigation)
  • unusable
Water quality refers to:
Is salinity a problem?
  • Yes
  • No

Occurrence of flooding
  • Yes
  • No
Species diversity
  • high
  • medium
  • low
Habitat diversity
  • high
  • medium
  • low

Characteristics of land users applying the Technology

Market orientation
  • subsistence (self-supply)
  • mixed (subsistence/ commercial)
  • commercial/ market
Off-farm income
  • less than 10% of all income
  • 10-50% of all income
  • > 50% of all income
Relative level of wealth
  • very poor
  • poor
  • average
  • rich
  • very rich
Level of mechanization
  • manual work
  • animal traction
  • mechanized/ motorized
Sedentary or nomadic
  • Sedentary
  • Semi-nomadic
  • Nomadic
Individuals or groups
  • individual/ household
  • groups/ community
  • cooperative
  • employee (company, government)
Gender
  • women
  • men
Age
  • children
  • youth
  • middle-aged
  • elderly
Area used per household
  • < 0.5 ha
  • 0.5-1 ha
  • 1-2 ha
  • 2-5 ha
  • 5-15 ha
  • 15-50 ha
  • 50-100 ha
  • 100-500 ha
  • 500-1,000 ha
  • 1,000-10,000 ha
  • > 10,000 ha
Scale
  • small-scale
  • medium-scale
  • large-scale
Land ownership
  • state
  • company
  • communal/ village
  • group
  • individual, not titled
  • individual, titled
Land use rights
  • open access (unorganized)
  • communal (organized)
  • leased
  • individual
Water use rights
  • open access (unorganized)
  • communal (organized)
  • leased
  • individual
  • Rain
Access to services and infrastructure
health

poor
x
good
education

poor
x
good
technical assistance

poor
x
good
employment (e.g. off-farm)

poor
x
good
markets

poor
x
good
energy

poor
x
good
roads and transport

poor
x
good
drinking water and sanitation

poor
x
good
financial services

poor
x
good

Impacts

Socio-economic impacts
farm income
decreased
x
increased


Before the farmer did not cultivate cardamom on the fallow area.Thus, the farm income increased by selling the cardamom.

diversity of income sources
decreased
x
increased


Increase income from Cardamom because before farmers did not collected cardamom for commercial
Cardamom plantations under the forest canopy generate an additional income source.

workload
increased
x
decreased


Famers have now their own cardamom fields near the villages. And hence, this not anymore needs searching the natural forest after wild cardamom which is time consuming.

Socio-cultural impacts
conflict mitigation
worsened
x
improved


Conflictual situations decreased because farmers have now their own cardamom fields.

Ecological impacts
soil moisture
decreased
x
increased

plant diversity
decreased
x
increased


Increase in local mushrooms and moss.

invasive alien species
increased
x
reduced


Increase in number of snakes and mosquitos.

habitat diversity
decreased
x
increased


Increased in earthworms, milli pest and bug.

Off-site impacts
impact of greenhouse gases
increased
x
reduced


Better protection of the natural forests, as cultivated cardamom produces satisfactory yields for around 15 years. Thus, long fallow period normally needed for rice cultivation on the same plot can be compensated. Less frequent forest burning, less aerosols and stalilization of forest area.

Cost-benefit analysis

Benefits compared with establishment costs
Short-term returns
very negative
x
very positive

Long-term returns
very negative
x
very positive

Benefits compared with maintenance costs
Short-term returns
very negative
x
very positive

Long-term returns
very negative
x
very positive

Climate change

Gradual climate change
annual rainfall decrease

not well at all
x
very well
seasonal rainfall decrease

not well at all
x
very well
Season: winter

Adoption and adaptation

Percentage of land users in the area who have adopted the Technology
  • single cases/ experimental
  • 1-10%
  • 11-50%
  • > 50%
Of all those who have adopted the Technology, how many have done so without receiving material incentives?
  • 0-10%
  • 11-50%
  • 51-90%
  • 91-100%
Has the Technology been modified recently to adapt to changing conditions?
  • Yes
  • No
To which changing conditions?
  • climatic change/ extremes
  • changing markets
  • labour availability (e.g. due to migration)

Conclusions and lessons learnt

Strengths: land user's view
  • Reduced conflicts regarding cardamom harvest that formerly was collected in the open forest.
  • Increase in forest cover.
  • Improved soil in the slash and burn shifting cultivation area.
Strengths: compiler’s or other key resource person’s view
  • Preservation of the forest resources and improvement of the local ecosystem through this sustainable cardamom cultivation.
  • The former traditional and extensive cardamom collection in the forests has been reduced, but the new cardamom plantation technique stabilized at the same time the shifting cultivation area.
Weaknesses/ disadvantages/ risks: land user's viewhow to overcome
  • The higher amount of cardamom plants in the humid forest promoted snakes and mosquitos.
  • The land users had difficulties to find suitable cardamom seedlings, because the natural forests are very messy and humid.
  • The strict eradication of the slash-and-burn practice by the new land allocation policy, limited and threat the traditional cardamom collection.
Weaknesses/ disadvantages/ risks: compiler’s or other key resource person’s viewhow to overcome

References

Compiler
  • Bounthanom Bouahom
Editors
  • Bounthanom Bouahom
  • sinnilong vongkhamchanh
Reviewer
  • viengsavanh phimphachanhvongsod
  • Nicole Harari
  • Stephanie Jaquet
  • Alexandra Gavilano
Date of documentation: May 15, 2017
Last update: May 10, 2019
Resource persons
Full description in the WOCAT database
Linked SLM data
Documentation was faciliated by
Institution Project
This work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareaAlike 4.0 International