Bleak market conditions leave farmers asking for ULA/AA intervention

By Admin 03 Oct 2024

DMG Newsroom
3 October 2024, Sittwe

Paddy farmers in Arakan State have called on the revolutionary Arakkha People's Government, led by the United League of Arakan/Arakkha Army (ULA/AA), to create a viable paddy and rice market as they face unsold backstock and challenging conditions for the upcoming harvest.

Myanmar's military regime has essentially cut off Arakan State from the rest of the country since the latest fighting broke out in November 2023. Farmers saw their incomes plummet or reduced to nil as they could not sell rice harvested last year to other parts of Myanmar or abroad.

They struggled to grow monsoon paddy this year as they had little money to afford agricultural inputs.

With the harvest period approaching over the next few weeks, farmers hope that the Arakkha People's Government sets a fair price for them so that they can sell last year's harvest and the one that is imminent.

"No one bought our paddy last year. If no one buys even after this year's harvest, we will suffer huge financial losses. We want the Arakkha government to create a market and allow us to sell our rice," said farmer Daw Than Than Soe from Mrauk-U Township.

Currently, 100 baskets of Paw Hsan Hmwe rice sell for around 800,000 kyats in Arakan State, and inferior rice varieties sell for around 500,000 kyats. However, those prices presume a readily available market of buyers, which has not been the case for many.

Arakan State rice growers have scaled down their monsoon paddy cultivation this season, and yields are also expected to decline as many farmers could not afford to use the amount of fertiliser needed.

"We haven't been able to sell rice harvested since last year. So, farmers could not even use [enough] fertiliser when they grew monsoon paddy this year. Our lives will become better only when there is a market for us to sell our rice," said farmer U Aung Thein Tun from Ponnagyun Township.

Given the large amounts of unsold rice from last year's harvest, farmers are cash-strapped and struggling to hire equipment and workers to harvest their paddy fields this year, said farmer U Hla Maung Thein from Kyauktaw Township.

"Most farmers are poor. Many were forced to pawn their gold items to grow monsoon paddy. But they don't have money for the harvest. They will have money only after last year's harvest is sold out."

Seventy-five percent of the population in Arakan State are farmers, and agriculture is the backbone of the Arakan State economy.

Arakan State has 1.2 million acres of arable land, but only one-third of the farms were put under rice cultivation this monsoon season, according to farmers.