Myanmar is growing fast, but at least one sector isn't growing as fast as the government wants. The nation’s leaders are striving to export 3 million tons of rice during the 12 months ending March 2014, which would mark a 43 percent increase over the previous period, a target that industry experts and government officials say is impossible to achieve.
In the first half of the 20th century, under British rule, Myanmar was the world’s top rice exporter. But after the military junta took...
Myanmar Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation and International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) will cooperate for the development of Myanmar rice, official media reported Wednesday.
U Myint Hlaing, minister of Agriculture and Irrigation and IRRI 's director-general Dr Robert S Zeigler signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Myanmar Rice Sector Development Strategy and Program, in Nay Pyi Taw on Tuesday, said the New Light of Myanmar.
At the workshop on development of Myanmar...
Myanmar is mapping out its way to vastly boost its rice production through a carefully planned strategy that engages donor agencies and builds rice science capacity.
Economic development across Southeast Asia, including in Vietnam, has been lifted by rice sector development, thanks to higher production and exports. In Myanmar, the government wants to produce sufficient rice for its burgeoning population that is expected to reach 100 million by 2030.
”Myanmar’s rice sector has a huge...
On 1 September 2013, Myanmar’s President Thein Sein stated that “People in rural areas will soon experience tangible results of development programmes.” He seems to have ensured that the last months of his tenure are specifically dedicated to the farming sector, under the lead of the newly formed Ministry of Livestock, Fisheries and Rural Development. In Myanmar, agriculture accounts for more than 30 per cent of the GDP, and employs more than two thirds of the labour force. Hence it is no...
Beans are a profitable export commodity for Myanmar. The production of the cash crop supports one-sixth of the country's population. The nation currently exports 1.9 million tons per year to 52 countries, but just like its rice production, Myanmar has the capacity to produce and export more beans, if the junta hadn’t left the country decades behind in economic development, that is.
Despite being lower profile than rice, beans and pulses are vital cash crops for as many as 10 million...
According to the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP) data, the poverty rate was 32 percent before 2010. In 2011, it declined to 26 percent. In order to improve economic development of Myanmar, Myanmar is drawing up strategies in political, economic, administrative, and private sectors to reduce its poverty to 16 percent in coming 2014-2015.
Myanmar is a country which gets less income and the capital investment is poor. We have shortages in electric, drinking...
Shrinking global demand, poor infrastructure and hesitant investors could leave Myanmar far short of its rice export target this year, dealing a blow to its ambitions of competing with the world's top shippers of the grain.
Industry experts and government officials say the 3 million-tonne target for the current fiscal year ending March 2014 is unrealistic and Myanmar, the world's top rice exporter under British rule in 1934, faces multiple hurdles in revamping an industry that withered...
A draft law in Myanmar that is intended to help farmers by setting minimum prices for crops may actually threaten to cripple them as well as undermine efforts to unleash the economic potential of a country that once was the world’s top exporter of rice.
“A price-support policy imposes artificial incentives and market distortions that can lead to inefficient decision-making by farmers, traders and consumers, which in the long run can have detrimental effects on welfare and broader...
Myanmar rice traders have announced that Japan has offered to import high quality rice from Myanmar for the second time in 46 years. It is a good opportunity for Myanmar’s rice industry. However, rice production may not be enough for exportation if the Government do not step up efforts to assist farmers.
Chit Khine, Chairman of the Myanmar Rice Federation, said that most farmers do not have access to agricultural loans and are unable to grow paddy. More than 100000 acres of paddy fields...
Myanmar has earned over US$ 124 million from rice exports between April and August this year, according to reports from the Ministry of Commerce.
Myanmar earned more than US$ 97 million from exporting 241,855 tonnes of rice while it realised over US$ 26 million from broken-rice volume of 81,130 tonnes.
The rice exports were slow in July because the price rose and traders targeted the local market.
The rice was exported to foreign countries not only by sea but also across border...
The worst monsoon flooding in more than 20 years has had only a slight impact on the price of rice because the floodwaters did not hit the country’s main rice-growing areas, according to the Myanmar Rice Federation.
U Aung Zaw Oo, a joint secretary at the federation, said the wholesale price of 25 percent broken rice had risen K500 per 49 kilogram sack to K15,500 but would likely fall the same amount next month.
He said the price rose this month after rice mills in flood-hit areas,...
RANGOON—Burma’s Parliament has approved the government’s decision to borrow US$100 million from China, despite opposition from the National League for Democracy (NLD) and other parties.
Lawmakers from the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) and military-appointed MPs were among those who agreed on Thursday to approve the loan, which the government says will fund a cooperatives program that support farmers and the urban poor.
At a meeting last weekend at the Ministry...
According to the United Nations Population Division, the country’s rural population makes up more than 66 percent of the total, much higher than the world average of 49.5%. Many are farmers who have suffered from the years of sanctions. But amid growing foreign investment, the government now plans to put more tools into their hands to improve the country’s economic future. Roee Ruttenberg reports.
This used to be called the Rice Bowl of Asia. A richness in the soil that brought a...
Agricultural loans will not be provided for farmers who own over 10 acres of land as they are wealthy people who can mortgage their lands, according to Myanmar's Deputy Agricultural Minister.
Deputy Minister for Agriculture and Irrigation, Khin Zaw made the comment in his reply to questions raised by MP Aung Thein Linn during a parliamentary session on Wednesday.
MP Aung Thein Linn said that since the government provides loans only for a maximum of 10 acres of farmland, farmers who own...
The move was decided at the Union Assembly after the report of Land Grab Investigation Commission had been presented to the Union Assembly to ease the suffering of farmers and people from the land confiscation.
Union Assembly Speaker Thura Shwe Mann urged Union government, Region and State governments to speed up their efforts to solve land confiscation in accord with the law [comprehensive, right and strong evidence in dealing with the issues] and submit the moves to the land confiscation...
Farmers in Myanmar on Tuesday drew up a list of 17 demands they plan to submit to legislators in a bid to amend the country’s land laws and provide greater protection against forced evictions, a representative said.
They want an end to the arrest of farmers protesting against land grabs or of activists defending their cause, and propose that the government offer them outright compensation instead of compassionate aid for giving up their land.
The demands, which the farmers want...
Myanmar is planning to export more fishery and marine products to the EU after 14 local factories seek export permits, according to officials from the Fishery Department.
"Our Fishery Department supports those factories if they are up to EU standards and quality. Currently, the four cold factories are trying to get marine products export permit to EU countries," said Tint Wai, Assistant Director for the Fishery Department told to Daily Eleven.
The factories need the certificates of Good...
Against the backdrop of export price hike of onion in India, a high-powered government delegation will visit Myanmar shortly to pursue channelling the essential item quickly from that country to Bangladesh to cool the local market, sources said.
The four-member delegation, headed by the additional secretary (Import) of the ministry of commerce (MoC), Manoj Kumar Roy, will also discuss with the Myanmar authority the supply of other agricultural items, including gram, garlic and ginger, from...
Myanmar is to expand its cooperation with China in a broad range of areas, including agriculture, trade, tourism and border management, U Thant Kyaw, Myanmar's deputy minister of foreign affairs, said in an exclusive interview with China Daily on Monday.
He made the comments during a visit to Kunming, provincial capital of Yunnan, for the First China Yunnan-Myanmar Cooperation Forum.
During the event, Myanmar agreed to establish a new coordination mechanism with Yunnan, aiming to improve...
Effectively regulating tax is vital to controlling rising land prices in Myanmar, finance deputy minister said at a press conference in Nay Pyi Taw on August 23.
“Actually, land prices increase because people buy and sell lands as if they are gambling. Myanmar has just started to develop and so people want to do some gambling. That gambling spirit cannot be easily stopped. We are trying to give a vent for the gambling spirit, and that is to establish the stock exchange. The stock exchange...
Neighbors often drop by unannounced. Guests are expected to compliment the host's house and/or kids. They are then invited to dinner and offered the best hospitality the host's family has to offer. ... More