LAOS (18 February)
Harvesting of the wet season paddy crop, planted in mid-May to early-July last year is completed. This crop, which is mainly grown in the Mekong River basin, accounts for some 75 percent of total paddy output. The second paddy crop, grown under irrigation in the dry season, is planted from mid-November to January and harvested in April.
The output from the rice crop in 2002, estimated at 2.41 million tonnes of paddy (1.45 million tonnes of milled rice) is fractionally higher than production in the previous year. Continuous increase in the use of high yielding varieties in recent years has resulted in a rising production trend since 1996.