Arakan State chief minister calls for expansion of summer paddy cultivation

15 Feb 2023

DMG Newsroom
15 February 2023, Sittwe

Junta-appointed Arakan State Chief Minister U Htein Lin urged local farmers in Arakan State to expand summer paddy cultivation, saying the state government would provide irrigation water by pumping from rivers.

U Htein Lin promised to build many irrigation channels if farmers grow summer paddy as he inspected the ‘Pu Rein’ river water pumping project in Mrauk-U on Tuesday. The chief minister, however, did not elaborate on the plan to build irrigation channels, said farmer U Maung Ba Thein from Pan Maw Village in Mrauk-U Township.

Just 150 acres of farmland have been put under summer paddy cultivation in Mrauk-U Township, with water pumped and supplied from the river. Farmers have to pay a tax of 9,000 kyat per acre to the irrigation and water resources utilisation department for the water.

“He said paddy cultivation was successful, and urged us to grow more. He said the government would help with building irrigation channels, without providing details. And we had no time to present our difficulties,” said U Maung Ba Thein.

U Maung Shwe from Kyaukdwingon Village in Mrauk-U said: “I could not grow summer paddy due to difficult access to water. The soil is good around our village. Last year, the yield was [good]. Authorities need to build concrete irrigation channels because earthen ones break easily.”

An official from the Mrauk-U District Agriculture Department said: “The chief minister instructed us to provide technical assistance to farmers to increase the yield per acre and improve irrigation channels. I hope a budget will be granted for those works in the next fiscal year [starting on April 1].”

The Arakan State Agriculture Department sells fertiliser to farmers growing summer paddy for a price of around 40,000 kyats per sack. Farmers can buy a quota of two sacks of fertiliser per acre.

In Arakan State, summer paddy is mainly grown in Ponnagyun, Kyauktaw, Mrauk-U, Rathedaung and Minbya townships. A total of 1,545 acres were put under summer paddy cultivation in those townships. While there are 1.1 million acres of paddy fields in Arakan State, only 30 percent of them are used for double cropping, according to the Arakan State Agriculture Department.