Despite the coup leader’s claims that productivity has improved in Burma’s agricultural sector, farmers’ activists say that on the ground, fighting and instability in various areas after the military coup have left farmers unable to work properly.
A farmer activist said, “In the rural areas, no one can cultivate their own land as well as before. Terrorist forces came to the villages at any time with weapons and unexpectedly arrested and tortured them. Worst of all, it burns the crops. “So the only way for farmers to be able to do their work calmly and well is for these fascists to fall quickly.”
Especially in Sagaing Division, where the fighting is taking place. In Magway Division, military council troops set fire to villages. Farmers have been forced to flee their homes due to the arrests and killings of villagers.
Karen State According to local farmers in Thandaung Township, there is no market for agricultural products and farmers can no longer hire workers, leaving the grassroots workers unemployed.
Political instability; Due to the disease, there is no market for buyers and sellers of agricultural products, and farmers are struggling to make ends meet, and the grassroots are struggling to make ends meet due to unemployment.
The coup leader said the Kovis 19 pandemic had disrupted production but kept food and fisheries growing at a steady 1% as food production remained stable.
In a March 2 Farmers’ Day message, the military leader said that 15.01 million acres of monsoon paddy had been planted, yielding 1053.73 million baskets, yielding 81,343 acres more than the same period last year and 2.68 million baskets more.
Other crops, such as pulses, were planted on 9.63 million acres, yielding 24.16 million baskets; 7.37 million acres of oilseeds and 96.22 million baskets of yield; There were 1.49 million acres of maize and yielded 79.65 million baskets.
Exports were limited to US $ 3,650.28 million from agricultural products, despite the restrictions imposed by the Kovis-19 pandemic. US $ 5.51 million from animal products; The military leader said that fishery products accounted for US $ 705.63 million, for a total of US $ 4,361.42 million.
As a result, the agriculture and fisheries sector contributed 22.7 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and the value of services, while the export sector accounted for 35.1 percent.
The military council has set the basic reference price of paddy every year since 2019 under the Water Protection and Benefit Promotion Law for Farmers’ Rights. Farmers are being provided with agricultural equipment at affordable prices and loans for crop production.
In addition to 1926.61 billion kyats in agricultural loans to farmers, 182.19 billion kyats in two-stage loans from JICA and the Myanmar Economic Bank and 421.29 billion kyats in Kovis-19 special loans totaling 2,530.09 billion kyats.
Denmark has donated 25 million Danish kronor (US $ 3.8 million) to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to help alleviate the risk of food insecurity in Myanmar and increase farmers’ yields.
