Impacts of Maize Production Groups on Commodity Chain in Lao PDR: An Application of Commodity Chain Analysis

Maize Production Groups (MPGs) is one kind of farmer organizations that is considered as a basic tool to transform subsistence to market based agricultural production in Laos. However, its impact on the commodity chains is limited. Therefore, this chapter analyzed the advantages of MPGs in facilitating farmers to obtain inputs and access to markets and investigated the profits from maize production among actors along the chain. By using Commodity Chain Analysis approach, the results found that farmers could purchase maize seeds from the groups with lower price and accessed to the loan with low interest rates through MPGs because it certified and prioritized by the government to obtain low interest rates for bank loans. Farmers was supported to access the markets with a higher bargaining power by MPGs. Secondly, profit returns from maize production among the actors in the chain are significantly different. However, the farmers are not able to gain higher prices because they must sell the maize quickly after harvesting because of a lack of storage facilites. Also, because MPG does not give any technical advice regarding planting, maintanance and storage of products to enable good production and high profits to the members. Therefore, to assist farmers can get higher profit, the MPG needs to transfer harvest and post-harvest techniques, in particular the moisture control, in order to imprive the quality of the products.