"U Myo Tint Tun, assistant secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation recently said: “A reduction in water available for crop irrigation is likely. Right now, the rainfall the country receives has been lower than in previous rainy seasons. Water flowing into the county’s dams has been fluctuating over the recent years and the amount cannot be estimated accurately. What is definitely known is that the country has to be more effective in saving water.” Rice is one of Myanmar’s major exports, and if shortages of irrigation water occur it would negatively impact a revenue source for the country. U Myo Tint Tun, says building more dams will not help the situation as there are already enough and that the problem is solely due to the climate. Being an agricultural country, irrigation water is a critical issue for Myanmar, he added. “Being an agricultural country, it is very important to have sufficient irrigation water. As rice is a major crop, Myanmar needs more water. The crop grows with rain water during the rainy season but in dry areas, irrigation water has to be supplied. If that insufficiency of irrigated water persists, it will be a great challenge for the agriculture sector,” said U Myo Tint Tun. To address the situation, the Agricultural Development Strategy was drafted about two years ago under the present government and it features solutions to uncommon weather conditions, he said. Myanmar’s 15 states and regions have different weather patterns, geographical features and water resources so approaches to deal with these are not the same, said U Myo Tint Tun..."