Burmese junta force farmers to cultivate summer paddy

January 23, 2008

The Burmese military regime is forcing farmers to grow rice this summer while withholding necessary water supplies from the government controlled dam, alleged farmers in Mon state.

The regime attempts to increase summer agricultural production throughout the country every year by forcing farmers to plant during the hot season. But, every year, it refuses to supply the necessary inputs such as water, fertilisers and pesticides that make cultivation during the hot season possible.

The regime is pressuring farmers to cultivate summer rice, groundnut and sun flowers despite being aware that little will be harvested, said a farmer.

Farmers located near the dam were forced to cultivate summer rice while the rest of the farms were forced to cultivate groundnut and sun flowers.

Farmers who did not grow groundnut and sun flowers were forced to pay two thousand kyat each. Farmers who owned farms near the dam received extra pressure to cultivate summer rice. If they refuse, a government decree orders their farms to be seized and forbids them from planting during the fertile rainy season.

Local authorities do not supply water from the dam and farmers can only get water by bribing authorities or using irrigation machines. The machines are expensive to run because Biodiesal prices are high this year, said farmers.

“If we were to profit from cultivating summer rice, groundnut or sun flowers, the government would not need to force us to plant it. We are the people who do the farming and we know better than the government,” said Nai Soe, a farmer in Mudon Township.

The government hopes to cultivate summer rice on about four million acres per year, but it has only been able to cultivate an average of 2.5 million acres. The amount of land cultivated in summer has decreased consisently every year since 2002. The summer rice crop, which is planted from November to April and harvested from March to June, was planted on 2.7 million acres across the country, according to government statistics.

The Burmese government has been ordering farmers to grow summer rice since 1962 and forcibly implementing the order since 1973. According to the agricultural department, the aim is for the country to to harvest surplus rice that can be exported, increasing incomes across the country.

Burmese people are heavily dependent on agriculture. Eighty percent of the population works in the agriculture sector and it provides forty percent of the country’s income.

Many farmers, however, do not accept the regime’s rationale. “The government wants farmers to work all the time whether they profit or not. The regime does not care. They only want farmers to work all the time and not to have free time. If farmers have free time, the government is afraid the people will go against them or protest,” said Nai Soe.

When the regime started implementing the project, they supplied inexpensive farming kits to farmers and farmers had no reason to complain. But after 2002, the government ceased supplying anything and the situation worsened, said an expert on Burmese agriculture.

Written by HURFOM · Filed Under News