Laos Festival Pays Tribute To The White Grain That Feeds The Nation

PHNOM PENH, Nov 26 (Bernama) --  As the golden rays of the sun fall across the stunning Xiengkhouang Province in northern Laos today, a festive energy sweeps through the villages as locals gather to celebrate the unique Khao Kai Noy Rice Festival.

For the next four days, thousands of farmers from sleepy mountain villages will showcase Laos’ rich agricultural heritage, traditional cuisine and vibrant culture to the world.

Not even months of relentless rain—damaging crops and farmland—seem likely to dampen the spirit of the celebration. 

“Xiengkhouang province is expecting a large crowd to attend the annual Khao Kai Noi festival. (It is) renowned for its celebration of the Khao Kai Noi variety of sticky rice, which is prized for its fragrant aroma and high quality. 

“The festival promises to be a vibrant showcase of culture, cuisine and craftsmanship,” reported Vientiane Times. 

Held for two decades, the festival honours a rice grain deeply intertwined with the province’s agricultural identity.

Xiengkhouang is a major producer of the Khao Kai Noy Rice, with yields of about 55,000 metric tonnes annually, across 12,500 hectares of rice fields.

Laos is renowned for its glutinous, or sticky rice, which accounts for 90 per cent of the country’s total rice production. 

Laotian farmers are striving to produce 3.9 million metric tonnes of rice this year despite the heavy rainfall that continues to threaten farm output. 

The lower-middle-income nation with about seven million people is also a major rice-consuming society with per capita consumption of 206 kilogramme per person,  considered among the highest in the world. 

Besides rice, farmers also cultivate coffee, maize, cash crops and passion fruit.

As in any other traditional Laotian festivities, the fair features products, handicrafts, and traditional cuisine, and the Khao Kai Noy rice exhibit will dominate the event, according to local media.

Agriculture remains the backbone of the landlocked Laos’ economy, employing about 60 per cent of its working population - many of them engaged in farming. 

Most of its subsistence farmers cultivate rice.

"Khao niaw, as Laotians call their sticky rice, is a way of life. However, intense weather variabilities due to frequent drought and floods have threatened national rice production,” the Philippines-based International Rice Research Institute said on its website.

-- BERNAMA