Myanmar is self-sufficient in food production, and has a sizeable surplus of cereals like rice,
beans, pulses etc. for export. Over the last decade 1980-1990, the annual rate of increase in
sown acreage was negligible (0.5 % per year). The increase in paddy production has been achieved
mainly through higher yields rather than expanded acreage. Any attemptaimed at accelerating the
process of industrialization by investing in simple technology, labour intensive manufacturing
industries is apt to produce an increased demand for food and raw materials. The upward shift
in the demand for farm products is expected to stimulate farmers to adopt new technology and to
find means to make increased use of inputs of non-farm origin.
A vast potential still exists for bringing in virgin land and fallow land into cultivation.
But the current drive is
(i) to provide farmers with access to know-how (eduction programmes at local experimental
stations), credit lines (agricultural loans), agricultural chemicals (fertilizers,pesticides,
weedicides),and farm machinery (tractors,power-tillers,hullers, water pumps etc.),
(ii) to lift controls on pricing and marketing of agricultural produce, and
(iii) to improve supply conditions of agricultural inputs of industrial origin by developing
the service industries including marketing, transport and international trade.
Agricultural productivity can be measured as farm output per unit of the original factors
of production,land or labour. Increases in productivity produce agricultural surpluses. As
these surpluses,in turn,give rise to a precondition for industrialization, appropriate
measures are being taken by the government to raise the level of agricultural productivity.
Efforts either to set targets or to draw programmes for achieving specific goals,call for
an adequate, reliable and up-to-date information on both human and as well as natural resources.
Agriculre Censuses serve as an execellent data base for all development programmes.
The 1993 Census of Agriculture was carried out by the Department of Settlement and Land Records
(SLRD) with financial and technical assistance from UNDP/FAO. The agricultural census was,in fact,
the phase I of the ongoing project known as "Agricultural Census and Strengthening of the System
of Agricultural Statistics" (Project MYA/85/004)". Myanmar officials involved in census taking
received the services to two consultants Mr.J.A Colwell- an Australian national and Dr.M.M Manuel -
a Philippine national.
The agricultural census covered 272 townships out of a total of 319 in the 7 states and 7 divisions
of Myanmar. The census operation was intialized in September, 1990, the planning, preparation,
recruitment and training of field staff took two years.The actual enumeration was carried out
concurrently in all parts of the country in 1993 from February 22 to April 11.
The primary objective of the MAC was to provide comprehensive and reliable data on all agricultual
activities, including food production required for planning purposes and for strengthening the
local capacity to formulate, implenment and monitor various development programmes. The secondary
objectives were
(i) to collect data on the structure of the agricultural sector,
(ii) to have an up-to-date baseline information for monitoring the impact of plicy measures,
programmes and projects in the agricultural sector,
(iii) to construct sampling frames for future agricultural surveys,
(iv) to enhance the existing national capability to plan and conduct agricultural censuses and
survey, and
(v) to build an intergrated agricultural statistical system based on the experiences and
capabilites gained from the 1993 Census of Agriculture.
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