Corona virus (Covid 19) is causing concern in various fields worldwide, especially in the food system. The impacts of Covid 19 on food systems have been one of the factors fueling the debate on how to change food systems to make them more sustainable and resilient to crises. One of the
assumptions is that food systems based on agroecology would be more resilient than those based on conventional agriculture. This research aims to understand the resilience of food systems in Laos in the face of Covid19, with a focus on agroecological food system. The objectives of this
study are to collect information on the impacts of Covid 19 on the incomes and livelihoods of agroecological farmers and purchasing change of consumers, to analyze the strategies of resilience and adaptation of the different stakeholders involved in agroecology in Xiengkhouang province,
and to identify the strategies that make allow resilience or adaptations of these stakeholders to the crisis of this virus. This study has been conducted in Xiengkhouang province of Laos, from March to September 2022. Three concepts (food system, resilience and agroecology) have been used to analyze the evolution of food systems in the time of Covid 19. Various tools are used for our data collection, including literature review, farm and market visits, focus groups discussions and individual interviews of 90 agroecological stakeholders (farmers, traders and consumers) in
Xiengkhouang province and Vientiane Capital. The results show that, the main impact of the pandemic on the food system is on food distribution due to travel restrictions. Thus, the impact is more severe for farmers and traders who trade with long distribution channels, especially on the
access to market, access to inputs, frequency of sell, food lost, price dropped and loss of income. The main adaptation strategies for agroecological stakeholders rely on their own savings and cut down on unnecessary expenses. Additional copping strategies of farmers are based on the reduction
of cropping areas, and for the traders, on the limitation of the volume of trade. Additional copping strategies developed by consumers aim at reducing the quantity of some food (meat and fruits), changing diet (consuming instant food such as instant noodle, canned fish etc. instead), sourcing food from their families and producing their own food. There is no specific support from the government. In this study, we concluded that the food system based on agroecology in Xiengkhuang is resilient, as there is no food shortage or skipping meal reported, even without any
food emergency supply program supported by the government. Agroecological stakeholders were able to continue their activities, especially farmers that were able to produce food during and after the pandemic, as the agricultural markets remained open to provide services to the consumers. In
addition, rice, the staple food of Lao people can to store for a long time and during periods of strict lockdown, the development of livestock (chicken, eggs...) and home food crops in vegetable gardens have helped to cope with the with the Covid 19 shock.
