Agricultural policy

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Description: "“We wanted to treat people as customers, not as aid beneficiaries. It’s about giving people choice and therefore dignity. We don’t decide what people need, they tell us through the marketplace whether our products are valuable.” Debbie Aung Din, Co-Founder Proximity Designs Until two years ago, Myanmar was very isolated with no access to things that most farmers around the world had, such as credit, proper equipment and roads to get goods to market. In this Skoll Foundation visit to Myanmar, Proximity Designs co-founders Jim Taylor and Debbie Aung Din show how their organization has helped cause a 15 percent increase in rice yield. Before Proximity Designs, farmers spent up to eight hours a day carrying buckets of water to irrigate their fields. Now, with a low-cost pump operated by feet, they can water their crops in two hours, and make up to triple their previous income. Watch and get a glimpse of the Proximity pumps in action; see farmers getting hands-on training, and finally, meet a farmer who can’t stop smiling as he shows off his new tractor. It’s a tractor he can afford because of Proximity’s products and services, and he’s proud. Smallholder farmers are often trapped in a life of subsistence, weathering crop failure and other setbacks on their own. Neither government nor foreign donors provide information, skills and tools. Private companies overlook smallholders and rely on large producers to supply their customers. Jim and Debbie Aung Din Taylor met as 20-year-old community activists working to fight poverty in the Mississippi Delta, where they learned that before anyone can help people, they must live with them, and truly understand them. They took this philosophy with them when they moved to Burma in 2004 to found an organization they could scale up quickly to help the 4 million rice farmers struggling to lift themselves out of subsistence and poverty. That organization, which became Proximity Designs, designs and delivers products, services, and policy solutions to increase productivity and improve incomes. Its $13 plastic water pump, the “baby elephant,” doesn’t just replace sprinkler cans or provide an affordable alternative to metal pumps, it increases yields and enhances food security even in a debilitating political environment. PD designs and sells affordable foot pumps, drip irrigation sets, and water storage containers; offers financing services for those unable to afford upfront costs of products or seeds, and provides advisory services focused on helping farmers improve productivity, incomes, and resilience..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: Skoll.org via "Proximity Designs"
2015-03-26
Date of entry/update: 2019-07-25
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Description: Communication for Sustainable Livelihoods and Food Security in Myanmar.
Creator/author: Khin Thuzar Nwe, Cho Ei Ei Zin, Ko Soe Thura, U Saw Shall War, U Myo Chit, Khun Kyaw Zin Htoo, Daw Latt Latt Khaing, Dr. Hla Kyi
Source/publisher: ABC International Development
2017-04-06
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-30
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: Burmese (မြန်မာဘာသာ)
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Description: Executive Summary: "Myanmar is ready for change. This is particularly true of Myanmar?s rural sector, where 7 out of every 10 people live and most people in poverty reside. Over half are employed directly in agriculture, producing food for themselves, their communities, and for sale. Many others in rural areas ? often without their own land ? work hard in rural non-farm enterprises transporting produce, processing foods, and providing needed services. Others may migrate in search of work in Myanmar?s cities or abroad. Yet despite its location at the crossroads of the most economically dynamic region in the world, Myanmar has among the highest rates of poverty and malnutrition in the region. Myanmar?s Asian neighbors have shown that, in response to consumer demand for increasingly diversified diets as incomes and urbanization rise, investing in rural infrastructure and establishing policies to encourage their farmers to produce products that meet market needs will unleash a virtuous circle of growth among farmers, food processers, and service providers who are linked to growing urban centers and export markets. Raising productivity and diversifying from low-value grains into high-value meats, oilseeds, pulses, horticulture, and aquaculture stabilizes food expenditures for increasingly urban consumers, raises incomes for rural areas, and strengthens competiveness in regional and global markets. Among Asian neighbors, it has helped raise millions of rural people out of hunger and poverty. Myanmar is ready to seize that promise for its own future. Myanmar needs to break away from a legacy of policies that have held back, rather than stimulated, its farmers? potential. A mind-set change is needed to step out of the business-as-usual approach that focused on supply-led, yield increases and domestic food self-sufficiency. Agriculture policy needs to shift to an innovative vision that centers on a demand-led approach driven by domestic consumers and foreign markets with increased productivity throughout the sector. To succeed in practice, narrow silos of thinking and communication among the government, the private sector, and civil society should be broken down to encourage more harmonious and coordinated efforts. This new Vision is inherent in the title of this White Paper ? moving from rice bowl to a food basket for Myanmar and increasingly to the rest of Asia (and the world). The aim is to improve the incomes and livelihoods of rural communities while increasing the availability of more stable, diversified, and nutritious diets to consumers. This objective can be achieved by empowering smallholder farmers, equipping them with knowledge and technical inputs, and connecting them to urban and global markets. vi In place of a government-driven focus on crop production targets, the paper offers a concrete and systematic strategy for how Myanmar can modernize its agricultural and food sector. The strategy embraces market-oriented, private sector-led investment, innovation, and dynamism that is centered on small farmers throughout the country. It requires forward-looking and efficient government policies and institutional support with greater interaction among key stakeholders characterized by full transparency and accountability..."
Source/publisher: National Economic and Social Advisory Council (NESAC)
2016-04-06
Date of entry/update: 2016-06-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 824.05 KB
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Description: ဆန အ ိုျးမှသည စာျးဖ ယ စိုံမခင ျးရတာင ျးဆီသ ိုှံ့- မမန မာန ိုင ငံစ ိုက ပ ျးရရျးနှင ှံ့ စာျးနပ ရ ကခာကဏ်ဍရခတ မီတ ိုျးတက မှုအတ က မဏ်ဍ င (၃) ရပ အက ဉ ျးခ ပ မမန မာန ိုင ငံသည ရမပာင ျးလဲမပ မပင မှုအတ က အသင ှံ့အရနအထာျးတ င ရှ ရနဖပျီး အဆ ိုပါအရနအထာျးမှာ န ိုင ငံှံ့ လူဦျးရရ (၁၀) ဦျးလ င (၇) ဦျးနှုန ျး ရနထ ိုင ဖပျီး ရနထ ိုင သူလူဦျးရရအမ ာျးစိုမှာလည ျး ဆင ျးရဲန မ ျးပါျးမှုသံသရာထဲတ င သာ ရှ ရနရသျးသည ှံ့ မမန မာန ိုင ငံရက ျးလက ရဒသမ ာျးအတ က ပ ိုမ ိုမှန ကန ရနပါသည ။ ထက ဝက မကရသာအဆ ိုပါလူဦျးရရမှာ စ ိုက ပ ျးရရျးက ို တ ိုက ရ ိုက လိုပ က ိုင ရဆာင ရ က ရနကကဖပျီး မ မ နှင ှံ့ မ သာျးစိုအတ က ၊ ရပ ရ ာအသ ိုင ျးအဝ ိုင ျးအတ က နှင ှံ့ ရရာင ျးဝယ ရဖာက ကာျးမှုအတ က စ ိုက ပ ျးထိုတ လိုပ ရနကကပါသည ။ က ိုယ ပ ိုင လယ ယာရမမမရှ ရသာ အမခာျးရက ျးလက ရန အမ ာျး အမပာျးမှာထ က ကိုန သျီးနှံသယ ယူပ ိုှံ့ရဆာင မခင ျး၊ စာျးရသာက ကိုန စီမံမပ မပင ထိုတ လိုပ မခင ျးနှင ှံ့ ၎င်းင ျးတ ိုှံ့နှင ှံ့ ဆက န ယ ရသာ ဝန ရဆာင မှုလိုပ ငန ျးအစရှ သည ှံ့ လယ ယာမပင ပလိုပ ငန ျးမ ာျးမဖင ှံ့ အသက ရမ ျးဝမ ျးရက ာင ျးမှု မပ ရနကကပါသည ။ က န ရှ သူမ ာျးမှာ မမန မာန ိုင ငံရှ အမခာျးရသာဖမ ှံ့ကကျီးမ ာျးနှင ှံ့ န ိုင ငံရပ မခာျးမ ာျးသ ိုှံ့ထ က ခ ာဖပျီး အလိုပ အက ိုင အခ င ှံ့အလမ ျး ရှာရဖ ကကပါသည ။ ကမ်ာှံ့ဈီးပ ာျးရရျးအခ က အမခာက ရသာရဒသ၌တည ရှ ရနလင ှံ့ကစာျး မမန မာန ိုင ငံသည ရဒသတ င ျး၌ ဆင ျးရဲန မ ျးပါျးမှုနှင ှံ့ အာဟာရခ ှံ့တဲှံ့မှုနှုန ျးအမမင ှံ့ဆိုံျးစာရင ျးဝင လ က ရှ ရနပါသည ။ မမန မာ၏အ မ နျီးခ င ျးအာရှန ိုင ငံမ ာျးတ င ဝင ရင တ ိုျးတက လာမခင ျးနှင ှံ့ ဖမ ှံ့မပဆန လာမခင ျးမ ာျးနှင ှံ့အတူ ရမပာင ျးလဲမဖစ ရပေါျ လာသည ှံ့ စာျးသိုံျးသူမ ာျး၏ဝယ လ ိုအာျးတိုန ှံ့မပန မှုက ို ၎င်းင ျးတ ိုှံ့စာျးသိုံျးရနရသာ အမ ျးအစာျးစိုံလင လာသည ှံ့ စာျးရသာက ကိုန မ ာျးအာျးမဖင ှံ့ ရတ ှံ့ရှ ရပါသည ။ ရက ျးလက ရဒသဖ ံှံ့ဖဖ ျးတ ိုျးတက မှုအတ က ရိုပ ပ ိုင ျးဆ ိုင ရာအရမခခံ အရဆာက အအိုံမ ာျးတ င ရင ျးနျှီးမမ ပ နှံရပျးမခင ျး၊ မူဝါဒမ ာျးခ မှတ ရပျးမခင ျးမဖင ှံ့ ရတာင သူလယ သမာျးမ ာျးအာျး ရစ ျးက က လ ိုအပ ခ က နှင ှံ့ က ိုက ညီသည ှံ့ထိုတ ကိုန မ ာျးစ ိုက ပ ျးထိုတ လိုပ န ိုင ရန အာျးရပျးလှုံှံ့ရဆာ မှုမပ လ က ရှ ရာ ယင ျးလိုပ ရဆာင မှုမှာရတာင သူ လယ သမာျးမ ာျး၊ ထ က ကိုန သျီးနှံမ ာျးတန ဖ ိုျးမမ င ှံ့စီမံမပ မပင ထိုတ လိုပ သည ှံ့ ဈီးပ ာျးရရျးလိုပ ငန ျးရှင မ ာျးနှင ှံ့ ဖမ ှံ့မပကိုန စည ရစ ျးက က သာမကမပည ပရစ ျးက က မ ာျးက ိုပါ ခ တ ဆက ဝန ရဆာင မှုရပျးသည ှံ့လိုပ ငန ျးရှင မ ာျးအကကာျး ခ ိုင မာဖပျီးအက ျး ရှ သည ှံ့ လိုပ ငန ျးစက ဝန ျးတစ ရပ က ို မဖစ ရပေါျလာရစပါသည ။ စ ိုက ပ ျးထိုတ လိုပ မှုနှုန ျးမမ င ှံ့တင မခင ျးနှင ှံ့ က ဲမပာျးရသာ ထိုတ လိုပ မှုစနစ (တန ဖ ိုျးနည ျးသျီးနှံစ ိုက ပ ျးထိုတ လိုပ မှုမှ တန ဖ ိုျးမမင ှံ့ သာျးငါျးရမ ျးမမွူထိုတ လိုပ မခင ျး၊ ဆီထ က သျီးနှံ၊ ပဲမ ျးစိုံသျီးနှံ၊ ဥယ ာဉ မခံသျီးနှံနှင ှံ့ ရရထ က စာျးရသာက ကိုန မ ာျး ထိုတ လိုပ မခင ျးအစရှ သည ) လိုပ ရဆာင မခင ျးတ ိုှံ့သည တ ိုျးပ ာျးလာရသာဖမ ှံ့ရနစာျးသိုံျးသူလူတန ျးစာျးအတ က စာျးရသာက မှုကိုန က စရ တ က ို တည ဖင မ ရစရိုံသာမက ရက ျးလက ရနမပည သူလူထို၏ ဝင ရင က ိုတ ိုျးတက လာရစကာ ရဒသတ င ျးနှင ှံ့န ိုင ငံတကာရစ ျးက က ယှဉ ဖပ င ထ ိုျးရဖာက န ိုင မှုက ိုလည ျး ပ ိုမ ိုအာျးရကာင ျးလာရစပါသည ။ အ မ နျီးခ င ျးအာရှန ိုင ငံမ ာျးအကကာျးတ င ယင ျးသ ိုှံ့လိုပ ရဆာင မခင ျးက သန ျးရပါင ျးမ ာျးစ ာ ရသာ ရက ျးလက ရနလူထိုက ို ငတ မ တ ရခါင ျးပါျးမှုနှင ှံ့ ဆင ျးရဲန မ ျးပါျးမှုမှ လ တ ရမမာက ရစခဲှံ့ပါသည ။ မမန မာန ိုင ငံသည လည ျး ၎င်းင ျး၏အနာဂတ အတ က အဆ ိုပါအာမခံခ က က ိုဆိုပ က ိုင ရန အသင ှံ့အရနအထာျး၌ ရှ ရနပါသည ။ မမန မာန ိုင ငံအရ??
Source/publisher: National Economic and Social Advisory Council (NESAC)
2016-04-06
Date of entry/update: 2016-06-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: Burmese (မြန်မာဘာသာ)
Format : pdf
Size: 932.8 KB
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Description: "... Inle Lake situated in Southern Shan State is well known by local populace and foreign visitors for the natural beauty of the lake waters, surrounding mountain ranges, tomato floating gardens and leg rowers of boats. The lake plays a vital role for the ecosystem and economy of Shan State, providing many important goods and services for the communities. It is an ASEAN heritage site and also on the tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage sites. It is the main water source for Lawpita hydroelectricity power plant, a major tourist attraction site and a habitant for rich biodiversity and traditional culture. The lake is now facing devastating effects of unsustainable practices in forestry, agriculture and fishing activities. The situation is accelerated by impact of climate change. Water surface area and sanitation is decreasing, fish and plant species are disappearing at a fast rate while water hyacinth species are increasing, blocking water ways and dominating other useful water cress that farmers use for building floating gardens. Therefore with the collaboration of Ministry of Environmental Conservation and Forestry (MOECAF), UNDP and UNESCO, a fund has been provided from Norwegian Government to implement conservation and rehabilitation activities in the area. UNDP acting as the funding agency is working together with implementing partners to restore the area with the assistance of local communities. Due to the need of the communities, organic farming and market linkages activity has been implemented by Doe Taung Thu, a local non-government organization. For Organic farming, farmers have been trained in compost making, vermiculture, production of agriculture organic inputs such as natural pesticides, plant juice, fruit juice containing indigenous micro-organisms. With these products farmers are utilizing natural resources in the area. In addition an attempt is made to utilize water hyacinth for agricultural use. Objectives  To collect water hyacinth from water ways and shred into small pieces for compost making  To decrease water hyacinth in the lake and clear water ways for easy access to villages  To use shredded water hyacinth for mulching crops in a form of composting  To conserve moisture in soil by mulching, protect soil erosion and slow down rain run off so that moisture can penetrate deep down to the roots  To prevent rain splashing onto leaves and minimize leaf diseases  To suppress weeds and minimize weeding  To use chopped water hyacinth to feed earth worms  To increase chicken and duck feed for communities..."
Creator/author: Heather Morris, U Myint Zaw
Source/publisher: Ministry of Environmental Conservation and Forestry (MOECAF)
2012-00-00
Date of entry/update: 2016-04-19
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 404.88 KB
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Description: Objectives... Basic Principles... Land Use Administration... Formation of the National Land Use Council... Determination of Land Types and Land Classifications... Land Information Management... Planning and Changing Land Use... Planning and Drawing Land Use Map... Zoning and Changing Land Use... Changing Land Use by Individual Application... Grants and Leases of Land at the Disposal of Government Procedures related to Land Acquisition, Relocation, Compensation... Part-VI Land Dispute Resolution and Appeal... Land Disputes Resolution... Appeal... Assessment and Collection of Land Tax, Land Transfer Fee and Stamp Duties... Land Use Rights of the Ethnic Nationalities... Equal Rights of Men and Women... Harmonization of Laws and Enacting New Law... Monitoring and Evaluation... Research and Development...Miscellaneous .
Source/publisher: Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar
2015-05-00
Date of entry/update: 2015-07-30
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: Burmese (မြန်မာဘာသာ)
Format : pdf
Size: 488.79 KB
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Description: Objectives... Basic Principles... Land Use Administration... Formation of the National Land Use Council... Determination of Land Types and Land Classifications... Land Information Management... Planning and Changing Land Use... Planning and Drawing Land Use Map... Zoning and Changing Land Use... Changing Land Use by Individual Application... Grants and Leases of Land at the Disposal of Government Procedures related to Land Acquisition, Relocation, Compensation... Part-VI Land Dispute Resolution and Appeal... Land Disputes Resolution... Appeal... Assessment and Collection of Land Tax, Land Transfer Fee and Stamp Duties... Land Use Rights of the Ethnic Nationalities... Equal Rights of Men and Women... Harmonization of Laws and Enacting New Law... Monitoring and Evaluation... Research and Development... Miscellaneous .
Source/publisher: Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar
2015-05-00
Date of entry/update: 2015-07-30
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 278.78 KB
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Description: "The new wave of political reforms have set Myanmar on a road to unprecedented economic expansion, but, without targeted policy efforts and regulation to even the playing field, the benefits of new investment will filter down to only a few, leaving small - scale farmers ? the backbone of the Myanmar economy ? unable to benefit from this growth...KEY RECOMMENDATIONS: If Myanmar is to meet its ambitions on equitable growth, political leaders must put new policies and regulation to generate equitable growth at the heart of their democratic reform agenda. Along with democratic reforms, and action to end human-rights abuses, these policies must: * Address power inequalities in the markets; * Put small-scale farmers at the center of new agricultural investments; * Close loopholes in law and practice that leave the poorest open to land-rights abuses..."
Source/publisher: OXFAM
2013-06-04
Date of entry/update: 2013-07-01
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 265.75 KB
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Description: "From his thatch-roofed hut, 62-year-old farmer Tint Sein studied the bucolic scene anxiously. Trapped in debt to black-market lenders, he says he has begun to skip meals to save money for his family of four. The emerald-green rice fields that sustained generations of his clan are no longer profitable. The arithmetic is remorseless. The 10-acre spread earns him an average $4 daily, but his costs are $6, yielding a bottom-line loss of $2, day after day. "I cannot live on this income," he says. That leaves Tint Sein a painful choice: Abandon the farm to join the swelling ranks of Myanmar?s landless farmers - or hope that his nation?s new reformist government will revive the farm belt?s fortunes. Change is sweeping Myanmar. In 12 months of reforms, the former military junta has embraced an economic and political opening that has won praise from Washington to Tokyo. But change is coming either too slowly, or in the wrong forms, to the place where the great majority of Myanmar?s people live: the farming heartland, which once led the world in rice exports before withering under half a century of military dictatorship..."
Source/publisher: Reuters
2012-08-09
Date of entry/update: 2012-08-16
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: Abstract: "This paper try to analyze unique data set for rice producing agricultural households in some selected areas of Bago and Yangon divisions to examine the households? profit efficiency and the relationship between farm and household attributes and profit inefficiency using a Cobb-Douglas production frontier function. The frequency distribution reveals that the mean technical inefficiency is 0.1627 with a minimum of 3 percent and maximum of 73 percent which indicates that, on average, about 16% of potential maximum output is lost owing to technical inefficiency in both studied areas. While 85% of the sample farms exhibit profit inefficiency of 20% or less, about 40% of the sample farms is found to exhibit technical inefficiency of 20% or less, indicating that among the sample farms technical inefficiency is much lower than profit inefficiency."... Keywords: Myanmar, rice, efficiency, production frontier function
Creator/author: Nay Myo Aung
Source/publisher: Institute for Developing Economies (IDE) Jetro (IDE DISCUSSION PAPER No. 306)
2011-09-00
Date of entry/update: 2011-10-17
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "...The regime?s persistent military targeting of ethnic peoples has significantly compounded the negative effects of economic mismanagement. Although the ethnic conflict in Burma is widely considered a human rights problem, many of the regime?s tactics are economic; in an attempt to starve them into submission, ethnic groups are routinely denied the ability to secure an income sufficient for survival... Continued conflict and human rights abuses have severely weakened the economy, to the detriment of both ethnic peoples and the general population, and made economic reform a practical impossibility in Burma. Although gross human rights violations and cultural destruction seem not to bother Burma?s government, perhaps the impossibility of sustaining the country on a continually deteriorating economic base will eventually force the ruling power to make concessions and respect the rights of Burma?s ethnic nationalities."
Creator/author: Laura Frankel
Source/publisher: "Cultural Survival Quarterly" Issue 24.3
2000-10-31
Date of entry/update: 2010-08-17
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: A Japanese study illustrates how farmers created an agricultural market in spite of the military government?s bureaucrats... "Economic Disparity in Rural Myanmar" by Ikuko Okamoto. National University of Singapore Press, 2008... "THE devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis and spiraling global food prices have placed even more pressure on the agricultural sector of Burma, once the world?s largest rice exporter and potentially one of Asia?s most prodigious producers of agricultural staples. The majority of the Burmese labor pool is in farming, and rice production remains not just a national priority but an obsession of the junta. Successive regimes have attempted a number of initiatives to increase agricultural production, first through disastrous socialist policies, and since 1988 with piecemeal open market reforms which have continued to stifle the true promise of the agricultural sector. Ikuko Okamoto?s book looks at one success story in this sad litany of state failure. Economic Disparity in Rural Myanmar is an academic analysis of the rapid increase in production of pulses in one township close to Rangoon. A pulse is a bean, in this case one called pedishwewar, or golden green gram, otherwise known as the mung bean. It is a close study of the relationship between Burmese farm laborers, rural traders, tractor dealers, some available land, rice paddy crops and a fortuitous gap in the global rice market that produced a pulse market where before there was none. The sting is that most of the people on the lower rungs—the farmer-laborers—profited least from their labors. Pulses brought in a total of 3.6 billion kyat (US $3 million) in 2007, mainly due to India, which reduced pulse cultivation, allowing farmers and traders in Burma to fill the demand. Okamoto, a researcher at Japan?s Institute for Developing Economies, spent several years studying production techniques in Thongwa Township, east of Rangoon and home to 64 villages and about 150,000 people. In this well-designed and detailed study, she looks at how the dramatic growth in green gram production produced an export success..."
Creator/author: David Scott Mathieson
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" Vol. 16, No. 7
2008-07-00
Date of entry/update: 2008-07-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: Abstract: "Myanmar?s agricultural economy is in transition from a planned to a market system. However, the economy does not seem to capture the full gains of productivity growth expected from such a transition. Using a micro dataset collected in 2001 and covering more than 500 households in eight villages with diverse agro-ecological environments, this paper shows that policy interventions in land use and agricultural marketing underlie the lack of income growth. Regression analyses focusing on within-village variations in cropping patterns show that the acreage share under nonlucrative paddy crops is higher for farmers who are under tighter control of the local administration. Keywords: reform, food policy, transitional economies, Asia, Myanmar."
Creator/author: Takashi Kurosaki
Source/publisher: Hitotsubashi University Research Unit for Statistical Analysis in Social Sciences
2005-03-00
Date of entry/update: 2008-04-22
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: Abstract "This paper reviews the development of the agricultural sector in Myanmar after the transition to an open economy in 1988 and analyzes the nature as well as the performance of the agricultural sector. The avoidance of social unrest and the maintenance of control by the regime are identified as the two key factors that have determined the nature of agricultural policy after 1988. A major consequence of agricultural policy has been a clear difference in development paths among the major crops. Production of crops that had a potential for development showed sluggish growth due to policy constraints, whereas there has been a self-sustaining increase in the output of those crops that have fallen outside the remit of agricultural policy."
Creator/author: Koichi Fujita, Ikuko Okamoto
Source/publisher: IDE Discussion Paper No. 63
2006-06-00
Date of entry/update: 2006-07-16
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English (also available in Japanese(?)
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Description: Abstract: "Creating a rice marketing system has been one of the central policy issues in Myanmar?s move to a market economy since the end of the 1980s. Two liberalizations of rice marketing were implemented in 1987 and 2003. This paper examines the essential aspects of the liberalizations and the subsequent transformation of Myanmar?s rice marketing sector. It attempts to bring into clearer focus the rationale of the government?s rice marketing reforms which is to maintain a stable supply of rice at a low price to consumers. Under this rationale, however, the state rice marketing sector continued to lose efficiency while the private sector was allowed to develop on condition that it did not jeopardize the rationale of stable supply at low price. The paper concludes that the prospect for the future development of the private rice marketing sector is dim since a change in the rice market?s rationale is unlikely. Private rice exporting is unlikely to be permitted, while the domestic market is approaching the saturation point. Thus, there is little momentum for the private rice sector to undertake any substantial expansion of investment."... Keywords: Myanmar, rice, marketing system, liberalization
Creator/author: Ikuko Okamoto
Source/publisher: IDE Discussion Papaer No. 43
2005-12-00
Date of entry/update: 2006-07-16
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English (available also in Japanese - ?)
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Description: ABSTRACT: The paper proceeds from the widely held assessment that "Myanmar?s economy is handicapped by structural imbalance, instability, inefficient and imperfect markets, and distorted prices. The paper delineates how this general state of affairs is clearly evident in the agricultural sector. It then identifies the constraints retarding the development of agricultural growth. Among the factors blamed for blunting the sector?s competitiveness are policies on: land, production, procurement and price, foreign exchange, and subsidy. The excessive controls inherent in these policies, coupled with their erratic implementation, are seen to create a general atmosphere of uncertainty and unpredictability in the economy and an erosion of the government?s credibility. Based on the negative impact of the existing policies and on the need to strengthen the competitiveness of the agricultural sector and thus help it contribute to the sustainable development of the country?s economy, the paper recommends alternative policy options. Foremost among these alternatives suggested are the contracting out of land use rights; the shift of focus towards maximizing farmers? incomes and profits, rather than merely output; the liberalization of trade; unification of the exchange rates; reduction of subsidy to, or privatization of state-operated enterprises (SOEs), and allowing the entry of private enterprises to compete freely with SOEs."
Creator/author: Tin Soe
Source/publisher: Asian Journal of Agriculture and Development. Vol. 1, No. 2
2004-12-00
Date of entry/update: 2006-07-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of marketing reforms implemented in the late 1980s in Myanmar. Particular emphasis is placed on the impact of the reform on the rural economy and its participants, namely farmers, landless laborers and marketing intermediaries. The reform had a positive effect on all these participants through the creation of employment opportunities and increased income. The driving force of this success was "market forces,"absence of bad policy" is emphasized as a key for the success in the context of Myanmar, where excessive and murky government intervention often resulted in failure to induce private sector development.
Creator/author: Ikuko Okamoto
Source/publisher: IIDE ( Institute of Developing Economies)
2004-01-28
Date of entry/update: 2005-01-08
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 89.3 KB
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Description: Abstract: "This paper looks at the case of Myanmar in order to investigate the behavior and welfare of rural households in an economy under transition from a planned to a market system. Myanmar?s case is particularly interesting because of the country?s unique attempt to preserve a policy of intervention in land transactions and marketing institutions. A sample household survey that we conducted in 2001, covering more than 500 households in eight villages with diverse agro-ecological environments, revealed two paradoxes. First, income levels are higher in villages far from the center than in villages located in regions under the tight control of the central authorities. Second, farmers and villages that emphasize a paddy-based, irrigated cropping system have lower farming incomes than those that do not. The reason for these paradoxes are the distortions created by agricultural policies that restrict land use and the marketing of agricultural produce. Because of these distortions, the transition to a market economy in Myanmar since the late 1980s is only a partial one. The partial transition, which initially led to an increase in output and income from agriculture, revealed its limit in the survey period."...There are 2 versions of this paper. The one placed as the main URL, which also has a later publication date, seems to be longer, though it is about 30K smaller.
Creator/author: Ikuko Okamoto, Kyosuke Kurita, Takashi Kurosaki, Koichi Fujita
Source/publisher: IDE ( Institute of Developing Economies) Discussion Paper No. 23
2004-03-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-12-05
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "Burma?s new rice trading policy change is a step in the right direction but several questions remain unanswered... On April 24, one week after the Burmese Buddhist New Year, Secretary Two of the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) Lt-Gen Soe Win issued a statement that scrapped Burma?s 30-year-old state rice procurement policy which was introduced by Ne Win?s regime on Oct 10, 1973. Beginning from the next harvest, before the end of this year, the government will no longer buy paddy directly from farmers. At the same time, the government announced a new trading policy, which stipulates: "All nationals have a right to trade rice. The price will be according to the prevailing rates, and monopolizing the rice trade will not be allowed for anyone or any organization." Citizens are now free to participate in the domestic rice trade. As far as rice exports are concerned, however, citizens will have to follow the three guidelines set by the newly formed Myanmar Rice Trading Leading Committee (MRTLC): rice will only be exported when it is in surplus, exporters must pay a ten percent export tax, and the net export earnings after taxes will be shared between the government and rice exporters on a 50-50 basis. Rice trading associations will buy rice directly from farmers and then sell to the Myanmar Agricultural Produce Trading (MAPT), which then distributes rice to the armed forces at cost. The MRTLC comprises ministers from related economic sectors with participation from private sector representatives from organizations such as the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI), the Myanmar Rice Traders Association and the Myanmar Rice Millers Association. The junta is optimistic this policy change will put Burma?s rice sector back on its feet..."
Creator/author: Min Htet Myat
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" Vol 11, No. 4
2003-05-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-07-02
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: Important report, which criticises the SLORC?s economic and social policies, including paddy procurement policies."A significant program of economic reforms has been instituted in Myanmar since the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) assumed power in late-1988. This shift in economic policies followed almost a quarter century of economic decline during which the prevalent development paradigm was termed " the Burmese way of socialism " . Under that model, economic development was to be achieved through rapid industrialization and self sufficiency, and led by the State Enterprise (SE) sector. Economic performance under that policy regime was poor. During 1962-77, real GDP growth barely kept up with population expansion and, as a result, living standards stagnated. Investment levels remained low, agricultural output grew slowly, and the economy grew more inward looking. The initial attempts at economic reform in the mid-1970s succeeded at first but could not be sustained due to macroeconomic and structural factors, which were reflected in widening budget and current account deficits, rising inflation, and stagnant agricultural output and exports. Faced with these serious external and internal imbalances in the early-1980s the Government?s stabilization attempts relied on tightening import controls, cutting public investment, and demonetization but were ineffective in reversing the economic decline. Following the anti-government demonstrations of 1988, the SLORC assumed power and announced that many key aspects of the earlier model would be abandoned in its economic reform program. With over seven years having elapsed since those reforms were initiated, it is an opportune time to take stock. Specifically, this report examines the impacts of the policy changes, with a view to identifying the areas in which progress has been made, as well as the gaps that still remain in the program. This analysis would then underpin the report?s recommendations concernng areas in which additional reforms are required and how these measures should be phased. Keywords: Economic growth; Economic reform; Economic stabilization; Government role; Policy making
Source/publisher: World Bank
1995-10-16
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: The State Peace and Development Council is making energetic endeavors for ensuring the emergence of a new peaceful, modern and developed nation. The Government pays serious attention to the proportionate development of all States and Divisions. Accordingly, the education, health, economic, transportation and other affairs of all States and Divisions are developing. Emphasis has been paid on development of agriculture as our country is an agro-based one. The combined force of the State, the people and the Tatmadaw is collectively striving for the agricultural development. First published in "The New Light of Myanmar", 12 September 1999
Creator/author: Tekkatho Tin Kha
Source/publisher: "Burma Debate", Vol... VI, No. 3
1999-09-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 150.36 KB
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