While sustainability is often equated with the climate crisis, decarbonization or the energy transition, in Laos, a least developing country where 58% of the labour force works in agriculture, it is intertwined with the need to navigate rising living costs at a time of economic uncertainty.

Soaring inflation has been eating into people’s incomes in the last year or so. This has pushed up the prices of fuel, fertiliser, and consumer goods at a time of rising world prices of commodities, the sharp depreciation of the Lao kip, and what the World Bank says is weaker capacity due to debt challenges.

This article depicts the stories of farmers in Laos with their homegrown initiatives which aim at a more balanced way of living– where people live with the natural world, instead of just taking from it, in ways that are aligned with social and economic realities while also generating income.