Recommendations

The economy of Myanmar is still predominantly agricultural.Agriculture accounts for nealy 40% of GDP, and provides employment to about 65% of the total workforce. The agricultural sector besides meeting domestic food requirement, it also produces a sizeable surplus for export. The recent incrase in paddy production has been achieved mainly through higher yields rather than expanded acreage. The current drive of the government is to ensure self-sufficiency in food-production, guarantee raw material for local agro-based manufacturing industries and of possible to increase the export volume of agricultural produce.

The 1993 Agricultural Census for Kayin State did not cover the whole region but it was estimated to cover the whole rice area in the State. In the area covered, majority of holdings were land holdings most of which were paddy land. Being able to enjoy heavy rains throughout the region, use of irrigation was slight and rivers and creeks were major source of irrigation. More use and provision of irragation will be needed if summer crops are to be grown in this region. Use of farm machinery and modern methods of cultivation by household-based land holdings was not common. Since the majority of holdings had schooling,they could be provide with moderm farming methods. The majority of household-based land holdings used draught animals, owned cattle. Half of the holdings had other sources of income and a considerable number of holdings could hired outside labor. This all means that even the household-based land holdings could be persuaded to use farm machinery and modern methods of cultivation if enough incentives were given. Ways and means need to be found for providing farmers with improved new strians of HYV seeds, farm machineries at affordable prices, and for inducing farmers to adopt new land-use techinques as double or multile cropping and growing summer crops. The 1993 census of agriculture collected information on agricultural holdings and on selected agricultural activities. Efforts were needed to collect additional information on

(1) Cost of cultivation and Productions, and
(2) Farm Income and Expenditure
(3) On-farm and off-farm opportunities for income generation.

The information on farm income and cost of cultivation would prove extremely useful in drafting and implementing agricultural development programmes.

In order to have a complete picture of the agriculture sector in Kayin State, there is an urgent need for additional information on the following characteristics.

(1) Means used to transport agricultural produce from the holdings,
(2) Area of land provided with drianage facilities,
(3) Production data of home-based small scale productive activities like wood prodcuts (handicraft) and fish products from agricultural land holdings,
(4) Use of agricultural chemicals.

		

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