(Commentary) – Burmese Senior General Than Shwe, in a statement on Peasant’s Day on Thursday, March 2, claimed that the government pays serious attention to improving the country’s agricultural base.
To improve the nation’s agricultural sector, he said the government has scaled up reclamation of unused land in order to boost agricultural production, created more water resources, encouraged the use of high-yield quality crops and the use of advanced agricultural methods and fertilizers in order to transition to mechanized farming.While the regime is right to emphasize such goals, the agricultural section remains bogged down. One reason, according to observers, is the regime’s law banning farmers from owning their own land and to organize non-government associations and unions.
A summary of some recent statistics: from 1988 to date, the government has built 233 dams which benefit more than 2.8 million acres of farmlands, according to government data.
In the new budget, expenditures allotted for agriculture and irrigation totaled 191 billion kyat (US$212 million), while funds for capital expenditure totaled 118 billion kyat (US$131 million). Expenditure for dams over a 22-year period totaled 298 billion kyat (US$331 million), or less than one year’s expenditure for defence.
The net sown acreage of crops stands at about 34 million. In 2010, the total paddy output of the nation was about 1,500 million baskets, compared with 600 million baskets in 1988.
However, Burma recently halted rice exports to help keep local prices in check, as the country grapples with a bruising new round of inflation in some commodities, underscoring the government’s concern about the cost of food, which helped to trigger the recent unrest in the Middle East.
Burma remains a relatively small player in the global rice trade, exporting up to a million tons a year in a global export market of about 30 million tons. Rice prices, until recently, have stayed relatively low compared with other grains this year.
The ban on rice exports came after local prices of some rice grades increased by around 15 percent in February, partly due to an increase in fuel prices and transportation costs. The ban on exports took effect on February 25 and will continue till at least the end of April.
Rice exports in 2010 were down by nearly a half from 2009, to 500,000 tons from 900,000 tons.
The senior general has encouraged farmers to work hand in hand with the government in building the new nation.
The government needs to give farmers more freedom to control their future, and the ability to express their needs and opinions. Farmers’ rights will become an issue in the new Parliament, and it’s a right opposition groups will support.
Until farmers have the freedom to organize and associate in independent, non-government associations and unions, the Burmese agricultural sector is unlikely to take off.
