Summary

Agriculture is the backbone of Myanmar’s economy. In 2018 it contributed 23.3% to GDP (USD 66.7 billion),9% to export (USD 14,851 million) and 50% to total employment (22 million).

However, Myanmar has lower agriculture productivity and the lowest profits from rice production compared to those achieved by farmers in Asia’s other rice bowls. Low productivity is a result of multiple factors. This includes limitation on data and information, on timely and quality input, non-investment in R&D, limited quality control measures, technology, farming techniques and systems, climate change and other stresses. Despite rising awareness for organic fertilizers by higher export requirements, organic fertilizers are not yet widely available in the market. There is also a limited distribution of quality seeds and limited irrigation.

However the country has the strength of a growing domestic market and a strategic location for international exports. Besides, the government is strongly taking some policy actions to develop the agriculture sector. Despite some challenges, the growth potential of Myanmar’s agriculture is expected to continue and more international trade opportunities are opening up in the upstream and downstream supply chain. 

UTILIZATION OF FERTILIZERS

According to the World Bank, the use of fertilizers in Myanmar is estimated at just 60kg/ha, compared to 300 kg/ha in Thailand and 700 kg/ha in Vietnam. It is about a total of 3.5 million tons of fertilizers used in Myanmar’s agricultural sector consisting of: 44% Urea; 7.8% T-Super; 4% Potash; 40% Compound and 3.7% of other fertilizers. Overall, the application of chemical nutrients in Myanmar represents only 10% of the Southeast Asian regional average.

Farmers’ knowledge regarding fertilizers and fertilizer use in general, is limited. Farmers mentioned that the way they determine what type and how much fertilizer they use mainly depends on what they see around them in the village. They look at what other farmers are using or what they were doing in the past season. In several villages, nobody knew about soil testing. Due to lower education of the farmers (they have limited capacity of writing and reading the local language), the use of English on the packaging leads to unawareness on how to come to an effective use of fertilizers in the farms. Most of the fertilizers are imported and repacked by the local distribution.

Regarding the types of fertilizers; chemicals and organic, 98.8% of the local farmers are using chemical fertilizers, according to the research of the Myanmar Food Security Working Group (FSWG) in the delta and coastal areas in 2015. This may be due to the quicker results and easy access to more harvesting. On the contrary the use of organic fertilizers is still limited in Myanmar. It is difficult to educate the farmers who work in an old method of farming; a primitive style of farming that involves the intensive use of indigenous knowledge, traditional tools and natural resources, as well as in a non-mechanized way, learned from the older generation and only look for short-term winnings. Some companies are transforming into organic agriculture to meet the global demand; however organic fertilizer products are not yet widely available on the market, whereas homemade organic fertilizers are sourced from the waste of poultry and swine.

GROWING MARKET WITH BOTTLENECKS

The Myanmar’s agricultural sector is largely comprised of smallholder farms between one and five hectares and the value chain remains strongly traditional compared to the neighboring countries. And agricultural productivity in Myanmar is lower than the neighboring countries. For example, by the findings of the World Bank, to harvest rice, one day of work generates only 23 kg of paddy in Myanmar, compared to 62 kg in Cambodia, 429 kg in Vietnam and 547 kg in Thailand. Lack of information on the global supply and demand conditions, limited access to crop management knowhow and farming techniques, a lack of good quality crop seeds and the climate change are negatively impacting the productivity of Myanmar’s agricultural sector.