Mawlamyine, December (20)
Mon state has seen a significant decline in cultivation of summer rice due to high prices of agricultural inputs and general cost during two years of military coup, the rice growers told Than Lwin Times.
Summer rice growers have been dealing with the issue of rising general prices, including the prices of inputs like fertilizers, fuel oil, and pesticides, since the military coup.
Following the military coup, the military council could not provide enough water for rice plantations, and farmers were forced to reduce their summer rice cultivation by one-third due to high general expenses, according to a farmer.
The previous government made arrangements to irrigate water from dams and rivers into paddy fields in order to grow summer rice, but assistance became weak under the military council.
A farmer claimed that some of them had ceased planting summer rice season due to high general expenses and labor shortages.
After the military coup, the cost of growing summer rice increased from 400,000 kyats per acre to 1,000,000 kyats per acre, and farmers are concerned about low rice yield and losses.
Mon State has more than 700,000 acres of rice, including 680,000 acres of rainfed rice and 37,000 acres of summer rice. But summer rice cultivation has been in sharp decline since the military coup.
Rice prices are expected to rise as summer rice cultivation declines along with the low yield of rainfed rice, according to rice traders.
News-Than Lwin Times
