Major Findings

The 1993 Agricultural Census was designed to provide a comprehensive description of the country's agricultural resources on the basis of information collected from agricultural holdings. The agricultural holding, which is an economic unit of production under a single management, normally represents all the land and livestock activities of a household. However, there are also special holdings owned and operated by state enterprises and private and public co-operatives, and other institutions. Some findings of major interest are given below:

(1) 46,939 acres in Kayah States were distirbuted among 11,790 holdings; of which 92.78% of total holding area were household-based land holdings. The majority of these holdings 71.94% were small farms under 5 acres in size, and only very few 0.08% were large farms extending over 50 acres. Among special land holdings, 81.82% were 50 acres and above in size.

(2) 89.48% of holders were males and only10.52% were females.61.80% of all holders had formal schooling indicating their capability to adopt improved techniques of production and to be responsive to effective extension services. 86.39% of holders worked permanently on holdings. 22.41% of land holders had other sources of income.

(3) 24.67% of all holdings employed paid worders,24.21% employed occasional workers, and only 2.21% employed permanent workers. A large portion of labour input was supplied by farm families. Among paid workers, the number of holdings employed occasional workers was as much as 11 times greater than that of the permanent workers.
Special holdings however employed a comapratively larger percentage of hired labour; paid workers 54.55%, permanent workers 54.55% and occasional workers 90.91%.

(4) A larger percentage of special land holdings used machinery and equipment than did household-based land holdings. 54.55% of special land holdings used water pumps, 63.64% used tractors, 36.36% used generator/ motors, 54.55% used power tillers, and 9.09% used other farm machinery. Among household-based land holdings, only 1.49% of household-based holding used huller machines. Large farms had the advantage to adopt modern farm machinery.

(5) A comparatively larger percentage of special land holdings used agricultural chemicals, 90.91% used inorganic fertilizers, and 63.64% used organic fertilizers. The same is true with the use of pesticides and HYV seeds; 54.55% used pesticides and 36.36% used HYV seeds. As in the case of capital inputs, large farms benefited from the used of new technical known-how and modern methods of cultivation.

(6) 58.97% of land holdings used irrigation. Rivers, Creeks and canals were the important sources of irrigation; they provided irrigation to 93.12% of houdehold-based land holdings.

(7) 66.72 of the total holding area were paddy land, 23.98% were ya land, and a small percentage 7.69% were taungya land. Among special holdings, 32.48% of the holding area was paddy land.

(8) 73.56% of total productive area operated by household-based land holdings, and 7.49% by special were under fruits and nuts. For household -based land holdings, the second most important crop sown was industrial crops. 76.94% of household-based land holdings, and 75% of special holdings grew fruits and nuts.

(9) 81.47% of all land holdings used draught animals. Regarding cattle and buffaloes, 64.00% of household-based land holdings owned cattle, and only 24.45% owned buffaloes. The extensive use of animal power seemed to reflect that further efforts were needed to modernize the existing mode of agricultural production.

(10) The average size of an agricultural holding was 3.76 acres. The average size of an agricultural household was 6. About one in every 4 household-based holdings had other sources of income. The average number of parcels per household-based land holding was 2, and the average size of a parcel was 1.83 acres. The average cultivation intensity was found to be 1.02. The proportion of land left fallow was about 1.26%.

		

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