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 institutions. Some findings
of major interest are given below:
(1) About 2,559,651 acres in Mandalay Division were distributed among 425,531 holdings of which
425,468 were household-base land and 63 were special holdings.98.17% of total holding area
were household-based land holdings. The majority of
these Land holdings (80.20%) were small farms (under 10 acres in size)
and a little more than half of the Land holdings were under 5 acres in size.Only 0.33% were
large farms extending over 50 acres and only 3.49% were 20 acres and above in size.
Household-based Land holdings followed similar pattern . As for special Land holdings the majority (85.48%) were large farms (50 acres and above in size) (93.54%) were 20 acres
and above in size and only 4.84% were under 10 acres in size.
(2) 46.11% of holders were in the age group 25-44 years and the highest number of holders were in the age group 35-44 years. The majority (87.78%) were males and only 12.22% were females. The highest number of male holders was in the age group 35-44 years whereas the higher number of females holders was in the age group 55-64 years. 95.71% of all holders had formal schooling incating the possibity of holders to adopt improved techniques of production and to be responsive to effective extension services. 75.20% of holders worked permanently on holdings and more than half (59.49%) of land had other sources of income.
(3) 56.72% of holdings employed paid workers, 56.27% employed occasional workers and only 5.36% employed permanent workers. Over half of the holdings had to use hired labor to supplement household labor, although only a small percetage of holdings employed permanent workers. 1,553,410 persons or about 66.66% of household members were of working age (aged 15 years and above) and 1,354,433 or about 87.19% of them were economically active. 62.41% and 31.60% of these economically active household members were permanent and occasional workers on holdings respectively. Thus 94.01% of economically active household members were farm workers supplying farm labor to over half of the holdings and only 5.99% of them worked outside the holding.
Although 56.71 of household-based holdings employed paid workers, 80.95% of special holdings employed paid workes. Only 5.35% of household-based holdings employed permanent workers, but 66.67% of special holdings employed permanent workers. As for occasional workers, houaehold-based holdings employed 56.26%, but special holdings emplyed 90.48%. Majority of the special holdings were large in size and being run by organizations, they were in need of paid workers. They had to employ paid, permanent and occasional workers more than houashold-based holdings as the letter had household members for farm labour.
(4) Special land holdings were able to use machinery and equipment much more than household-based land holding in Mandalay Division. 49.21% (as against 3.13%) used water pumps, 53.23% (as against 0.41%) used tractors, 38.10% (as against 0.23%) used generator-motors, 17.74% (as against 11.27%) used huller machines, 32.26% (as against 0.12%) used power tillers and 32.26% (as against 1.01%) used other farm machinery. Almost all (96.76%) of household-based land holdings were still using draught animals. Even 87.10% of special land holdings still used draught animals, which indicates the still important role of draught animals in agriculture. But large farms had more advantage to use modern farm machinery.
(5) There was not much difference (86.82% and 87.10%) between household-based land holdings and special land holdings in using organic fertillzers. But special land holdings used more of inorganic fertilizers than household-based land holdings 983.87% as against 42.64%) In fact, only half of household-based land holdings which used organic fertillzers had used inorganic fertilizers whereas percents of special land holdings which used inorganic fertilizers and organic fertilizers were nearly the same. A larger percentage of special land holdings (66.13% as against 25.10%) used pesticides and HYV seeds (67.74% as against 26.41%) compared to household-based land holdings. Roughly about two thirds of the special land holdings and about one fourth of the household-based holdings had used pesticides and HYV seeds. Use of new technical Knowhow and modern methods of cultivation was still low in Mandalay Division, especially for houaehold-based land holdings with small farms.
(6) Land in Mandalay division is scarcely rain-fed,since the Division falls in the Dry Zone. But agriculture in this Division has been helped by the irrigation systems since the times of Myanmar Kings. There are many important irrigation systems in this region. Ayeyarwady River, north of Sittaung River and their tributaries are also important sources of irrigation. 34.16% of houaehold-based land holdings and 62.90% of special land holdings used irrigation. 34.16% of household-based land holdings and 62.90% of special land holdings used irrigation. Government canals were the most important sources of irrigation providing 61.85% of household-based land holdings and 69.23% of special land holdings with irrigation. In fact, government canals provide 51.13% of total irrigated area for household-based land holdings and 92.95% of total irrigated area for special land holdings. Nearly the same number of household-based holdings were provided with irrigation by own wells and private canals (9.85% and 9.93%) but in total irrigated area, own wells provided 35.73% whereas private canals provided only 6.27%.Rivers and creeks also provided 6.96% of holdings and 2.80% of total irrigated area for household-based land holdings and 10.26% of holdings and 0.69% of total irrigated area for special land holdings.11.41% of household-base land holdings comprising 4.07% of total irrigated area had to rely on other sources of irrigation and 17.95% of special land holdings with 6.25% of total irrigated area also had to rely on other sources of irrigation. Privated canals provided irrigation to only 2.56% of special land holdings and to 0.11% of total irrigated area. Special land holdings did not use own wells for irrigation. With the introduction of summer paddy, mixed and triple cropping, demand for water is expected to increase to in the future. More use of irrigation and hence provision will then be needed.
(7) In Mandalay Division, Ya land was more than Paddy land 67.33% of land holdings were Ya Land and 53.59% were Paddy Land. There were a few Kaing land, Squatter land, Garden land and very few Taungya, Squatter and Rubber land. The same is true ifr household-based land holdings. As for special land holdings, 64.52% of holdings were Ya land, 45.16% were Paddy land and 14.52% were Garden land.Kaing land and Squatter land comprised 6.45% and 3.23% of holdings respectively and there was no Dhani land, Rubber land and Taungyar land.In terms of total land area, only 30.89% and 9.99% of total land area were paddy land for household-based land holdings and special land holdings. On the other hand 62.71% and 73.78% of total land area were Yar land for household-based land holdings and special land holdings respectively.
(8) The annual crop sown most by household-based annual cropped holdings was industrial crops (80.10%) and by special land holdings was cereals (77.42%).These crops were sown on 48.97% and 26.91% of total sown area by household-based land holdings and special land holdings respectively. The second most important crop sown by household-based land holdings was creals (70.59%) on 27.53% of total sown area. Both pulses (75.85%) and industrial crops were the same 75.81% by special land holdings on 30.64% and 38.55% of total sown area respectively. Pulses were sown by 46.88% of household-based land holdings on 19.49% of total sown area. Each of the remaining crops were sown by about 7.24% to 7.29% of household-based land holdings on about 1.13% to 1.59% of total sown area.But vegtables and fodders and other crops were sown by 12.90% and 27.42% of special land holdings grew tubers and roots and they are grown on only 0.01% of total sown srea. Among cereals,paddy was the main crop sown by household-base holdings (65.84%) on 65.55% of total sown area. Other cereals constituded 47.81% of household-based land holdings and 60.42% of special land holdings.
As to permanent crops,majority of household-based and special land holding (77.78%) of holdings on 82.72% of total productive area and 75.86% of holdings on 66.86% of total productive area respectively, grew fruits and nuts followed by industrial permanent crops (15.48% of holdings on 9.07% total productive area) for household-based land holdings and other permanent crops (37.93%) of holding on 6.58% of total productive area for special land holdings. Other permanent crops were grown by 21.78% of household-based land holdings on 8.21% of total productive area but industrial permanent crops were grown by 27.59% of special land holding on 26.56% of total productive area for special land holding.
Rice production constituted the majority of cereal production,65.85% of holding devoting 65.44% of total sown area to rice production.In rice production, Area under fine grain Emata rice was about two and half times that of coarse grain Ngasein rice.
(9) 96.76% of houaehold-based land holdings and 87.10% of special land holdings used draught animals on the holdings. 72.58% of special land holdings owned cattle and 11.29% of special land holding owned buffaloes, 79.13% and 6.25% of household-based holdings owned cattle and buffaloes respectively. The extensive use of animal power seemed to reflect that further efforts were needed to modernize the existing mode of agriultural production.
(10) The average size of an agricultural holding was 6.42 acres. Average household size of agricultural holdings was 5. 58.50% of the household-based land holdings had other sources of income. The average number of parcel per household-based land holding was 3.The average size of a parcel was 2.14 acres. The average cultivation intensity was 1.38. The proportion of land, left fallow was 4.71% of land and 4.77% of arable land 98.81% of all land was arable land and among arable land, about 30% were double/triple cropped.
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