Arakan farmers struggle to to grow paddy

By Admin 27 Jun 2023

DMG Newsroom
27 June 2023, Sittwe

Local farmers in storm-ravaged Arakan State townships are facing difficulties growing monsoon paddy.

Though the regime has said it has provided 83 power tillers to nine townships to enable local farmers to grow monsoon paddy in time, some townships have yet to receive them, and other townships said the supply is not enough.

U Sein Than Maung, a farmer from Sapar Village in Ponnagyun Township, said: “Farmers who have power tillers have started ploughing their farms. Those without power tillers still can’t start. We have to hire power tillers and it is costly.”

The regime’s agricultural ministry is also conducting training on the operation of power tillers, and is planning to lease out power tillers to farmers, Arakan State Administration Council spokesman U Hla Thein wrote on his Facebook page on Monday.

The chairman of the Arakan Farmers’ Union, U Kyaw Zan, said: “The agricultural mechanisation department will help plough the farms with its power tillers. Those power tillers have arrived in Arakan State, but have not yet arrived in the hands of farmers. The rent [for power tillers] charged by the agricultural mechanisation department is less expensive [than the rent charged by private businesses].”

Adding to the difficulties farmers are facing, many lost plough-pulling cattle and seed stocks when Cyclone Mocha pummeled Arakan State.

Farmer U Soe Naing from Kyeeyarpyin Village in Mrauk-U Township said: “We were hit hard last year, and we are concerned that we will face the same situation this year. We can’t afford to buy power tillers. We are hoping that the government [Myanmar’s military regime] will rent power tillers at low prices.”

The agriculture ministry said it would provide 73,000 baskets of rice seeds to farmers so that they can grow monsoon paddy.  The harvest last year declined by half in Arakan State compared to 2021 due to the high cost of inputs and adverse weather. Yields are also expected to decline this year.