Major Findings

The 1993 Agricultural Census was designed to provied 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 ) About 176598 acres in Kayin State were distributed among 37151 holdings, of which 37133 were household-based and 18 were special holdings. 97.51% of total holding area belong to household-based land holdings.The majority of all land holdings ( 85.19 % ) were small farms ( under 10 acres in size ) and nearly 60% of all land holdings were under 5 acres in size. Only 0.04% of land holdings were large farms extending over 50 acres and only 2.82% were 20 acres and above in size. Similar distribution was observed for household-based land holdings except that there was only one household-based land holings with size 50 acres and above. As for special land holding, 61.11% were 50 acres and above in size, 88.89% were 20 acres and above in size and only 5.55% were 5 and under 10 acres in size. There was no special holding with size under 5 acres.

( 2 ) 25.99% of holders were in the age group 35-44 years and the highest number of holders were in the age group 35-44 years. The majority ( 86.81% ) were male and only 13.19% were females. The highest number of male holders were in the age group 35-44 years whereas the highest number of female holders were in the age group 55-64 years. 73.92% of all holders had formal schooling indicating that majority of holders can adopt improved techiques of production and to be reponsive to effective extension services. 69.40% of holders worked permanently on holdings and half of land holders had other sources of income.

( 3 )36.59% of holdings employed paid workers, 35.02% employed occasional workers and only 10.15% employed permanent workers. It means that the majority of holding used household workers and that a large portion of labor input was supplied by farm families. About 65.23% of the members of households,i.e 139,861 persons were of working age ( aged 15 years and above ). 117,492 or about 84.01% of them were economically active, 59.56% and 40.44% of these economically active household members were permanent and occasional workers on holdings respectively. Thus 84.01% of economically active household members from workers which supplies most of the farm labor to the holdings and only 15.99% of them worked outside the holding.
Although 36.57%, 35.00% and 10.13% of household based holdings employed paid workers, occasional workers and permanent workers respectively, 77.78%, 83.33% and 55.56% of special holdings employed paid workers, occasional workers and permanent workers respectively. Majority of the special land holdings were large in size, and being own by orgainzations, were in need of paid workers. They had to employ paid, permanent and occasional workers much more than household-based land holdings,as the latter had household members for farm labour.

( 4 ) Use of machinery and equipment by land holdings was low in Kayin State, only 4.10% of household-based holdings and 27.78% of special holdings use water pumps ( engine or electric ). 0.25% of household-based holdings and 11.11% of special holding used generators/motors ( other fixed power producing equipments). A small percentage (3.96%) of household-based land holding and no special land holding used huller machines. Near zero percent of household-based land holdings and 11.11% of special land holdings used power tillers. 0.16% of household-based land holdings and no special land holding used Tractors operated cultivating equipment.0.06% of household-based land holdings and 11.11% of special land holdings used other farm machinery. This indicates that programs for the development of use of machinery and equipment are needed much in Kayin State.
Majority (88.23%) of household-based land holdings still used draught animals, while only 11.11% of special land holdings used them. Draught animal were found to be still important in Kayin State for agricultural works of household-based land holdings.

( 5 ) Percentage of household-based land holdings using organic fertilizers was larges than that special land holdings ( 78.31% as against 55.56% ) and percentage of special land holdings using inorganic fetilizers was large than that of household-based land holdings(66.67% as against 38.12%). Similarly percentage of household-based land holdings using HYV seeds was larger than that of special land holdings (40.74% as against 22.22%) and percentage of special land holding. Using pesticides was larger than that of household-based land holdings (66.67% as against 10.06%).Use of new technical knowhow and moderm methods of cultivation was still low in Kayin State, especially for household-based land holdings with small farms.

( 6 ) Most of the land in Kayin State is rain-fed, as the state runs parallel to the Thanintharyi coast. Rainfall is heavy throughout the region and only 10.47% of land holdings used irrigation. Rivers/creeks were the only important source of irrigation, providing irrigation to 70.12% of total irrigated area of household-based land holdings and 100.00% total irrigated area of special land holdings. All 4 special land holdings, which used irrigation used rivers and creeks only. Own wells provided irrigation only to 5.85% of household-based land holdings and about one fourth of household-based land holdings had to reply on other sources for irrigation. Government and private canals were found to provide irrigation only to 6% of household-based land holdings.

( 7 ) In Kayin State, majority of the land were paddy land with land area of about 153,987 acres ( or 87.20% ). 25.54% of land holdings were garden land with total land area of about 14,049 acres ( or 7.96% ). 9.25% of holdings were kaing land comprising 2.92% of total land area. Ya land, Dhani land, Rubber land and Squatter land formed very small percentages of holdings and total land area. Taungya land constituted 3.36% of land holdings, but only 0.71% of total land area.It is the same for household-based land hlodings. But special land holdings were mostly garden land. 72.22% of special land holdings on 74.67% of total land area were garden land. 72.22% of special land holdings on 74.67% of total land area were garden land. Only 5.56% of special land holdings on 0.50% of total land area were paddy land. A significant percentage (22.22%) of special land holdings on 21.17% of total land area were rubber land.

( 8 ) 90.54% of household-based annual cropped holdings and 11.11% of special land holdings grew cereal on 88.86% and 22.11% of total sown area respectively. For household-based land holdings, the second important crop sown was industrial crops ( 15.27% of holdings on 6.78% of total sown area), followed by pulses ( 7.09% of holdings on 3.88% of total sown area) and vegetables (1.72% of holding on 0.33% of total sown area). Only very small percentages of household-based land holdings grew tubers and roots, fodders and other crops on 0.39% and 0.03% of total sown area respectively. Equal percentage(5.56%) of special land holdings grew pulses, industrial crops and vegetables. However,vegetables were grown on 44.89% of total sown area, industrial crops on 18.15% and pulses on 14.85% of total sown area. Among cereals, paddy was the main crop sown. It constiuted 98.52% of household-based land holdings on 99.79% of total sown area and 50.00% of special land holdings on 32.84% of total sown area.Although the percentage of special land holdings growing other creals was 50.00%, the acreage constituted 67.16% of total sown area. Over half of household-based holdings as well as special holdings grew fruits and nuts, industrial permanent crops. However, the acreage growing them constituted 35.10% and 25.30% of total productive area for household-based holdings and 10.12% and 87.74% of total productive area for special holdings. Other permanent crops were grown by 43.85% of household-based holdings and 15.38% of special holdings on 39.60% and 2.41% of total productive area respectively. Rice production dominated cereal production, 99.79% of total sown area being devoted to rice production. In rice production, area under coarse again Ngasein rice was 1.23 times that of five grain Emata.

( 9 ) 88.23% of household based land holdings and 11.11% of special land holdings used draught animals on their holdings. 16.67% of special land holdings owned cattle and 5.56% of special land holdings owned buffaloes but no other livestock. 69.09% of household-based land holdings based land holdings owned cattle, only 9.06% owned buffaloes and only 0.61% owned other livestocks. Extensive use of animal power by household-based land holdings and small used of it by special land holdings indicates that type of crops grown determined the use of draught animals and efforts are needed to modernize the existing mode of agricultural production used by household-based land holdings.

( 10 ) The average size of an agricultural holding was 5.64 acres. The average household size of agricultural holdings was 6.0. Half of the household-based land holdings had other sources of income. The average number of parcels per household-based land holdings was 1.7 and the average size of a parcel was 3.39 acres. The average cultivation intensity was 0.89. The proportion of land fallow was 13.59% of all land and 14.49% of arable land.

		

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