HOUSE OF THE WEEK

An abundance of space at FMI City

CERTAINLY, space is not a problem in this house – once you get there. Over the Hlaing River, 45 minutes from downtown, there is a large one-storey house in a big compound waiting for someone ready to trade time for space. ...more

Yangon Weather Forecast, Burma

Delta project promotes high-quality rice production

A PILOT project now being carried out in Ayeyarwady Division could help Myanmar recover its status as a major world exporter of high-quality rice – a position it last enjoyed in the 1940s.

The UK Department for International Development’s (DFID) Pyoe Pin Program is financing the project, which was launched in Dedaye township in May. Under the project, farmers are provided with loans and technical advice and the aim is to improve rice yields and quality, said U Khin Maung Yin, the deputy program manager.

It was designed in consultation with local and foreign experts.
Two local NGOs, Mingalar Myanmar and Aung Yadana Social Association, are implementing the project in 2500 acres of farmland in Dedaye township’s Nauk Pyan Toe village tract.

More than US$470,000 has been spent implement the project, titled “Pilot Project for Production and Exporting of High-Quality Rice”, over the past monsoon crop season.

Starting the second week of May 2009, farmers in the program were provided with a low-interest loan of up to K150,000 per acre, in cash and in kind, which they have to repay by March 15, 2010. The project provides the loans through the Pyapon branch of the Myanma Livestock and Fishery Development Bank, and makes each of the 12-14 farmers in each group in receipt of a loan promise to act as guarantors for other group members in the case of default.

The seed used is Paw San Bay Gyar Lay. Due to the scarcity of quality seeds from the last monsoon crop, the project is also implementing a 40-acre seed multiplication pilot project in the same area and will plant those seeds next season.

According to Pyoe Pin, farmers who followed technical advice increased their yield from 30-35 baskets (567-661 kilograms; one basket weighs 42 pounds, or 18.9kg) of rough rice per acre to at least 45-50 baskets (850-945kg) per acre or more, while at the same time improving the quality of the yield.

The project included a successful demonstration, which helped farmers to believe that the new techniques would work. Farmers also had to protect the crops from rats.

The upgrading of a local rice mill, Danathaharya, to mill the rice at export quality, was also part of the project.
Rice traders and millers are identifying the best market for the rice produced by the project. But a Pyoe Pin Program official said only half of the rice produced would be exported, and the rest would be sold in the local market.

Nauk Pyan Toe Village Tract comprises Nauk Pyan Toe, Kyone Da Min, Ma Ngay Gyi and Ywa Thar Aye villages and 210 farming households are participating in the project.