As winter harvest beckons, Kyauktaw Twsp farmers seek safety assurances from local administration

By DMG 22 Nov 2022

DMG Newsroom
22 November 2022, Sittwe

Local farmers in Kyauktaw Township, Arakan State, who have fled their homes in fear of junta artillery strikes, are planning to ask the township General Administration Department (GAD) to allow them to harvest their paddy fields safely.

Residents from at least six villages in Nagara Village-tract are planning to seek permission from the local GAD. Some of the displaced villagers are currently sheltering in Kyauktaw town and Nyaungchaung displacement camp.

“We are planning to sign a petition to ask the township administrator to allow us to harvest rice,” said a farmer from Nagara Village who is now living at Nyaungchaung IDP camp. “We plan to submit our petition in the next three days.”

The Myanmar military’s 9th Military Operations Command has reportedly fired mortar shells near Nagara Village on a daily basis. More than 500 acres of paddy fields have not yet been harvested around Nagara Village.

U Maung Kyaw Tun, a farmer from neighbouring Yoke Thar Village, said: “We will ask authorities to grant us a certain period of time — for example, a month — to reap our paddy fields. Farmers dare not harvest rice because mortars are fired daily near our village.”

Farmers who are unable to reap their crops this year will face enduring financial hardship, he added.

“We will starve to death if we can’t harvest this year. We farmers only earn a profit of some K1.5 million to K2 million per year,” said U Maung Kyaw Tun.

Local farmers from some 20 villages in Ponnagyun Township are also unable to harvest their paddy fields as they, too, have been forced from their homes.

“We can’t hire people to harvest rice,” said U Htun Tin from Sin Inn Gyi Village. “No worker dares to come because of the current situation. And we can’t rent harvesters either.”