Cooperation in Agriculture: New beginnings in Myanmar

14-08-2017

Myanmar, previously known as Burma, and often romantically referred to as the Golden Land given the abundance of beautiful golden temples and stupa’s, is a diverse country in Southeast Asia with a large agricultural sector. 

Changing country

Myanmar is one of the last frontier markets in the world. Its past of military rule has left a strong imprint on the country and its population. Once being one of the main agricultural exporters in the region, the junta steered Myanmar in political- and economic isolation resulting in harsh living conditions for the majority of population. 

In the previous years, the regime has answered to its population’s enduring call for democracy. After an overwhelming victory of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, the first democratic government was installed in 2016. Since that moment onwards, Myanmar is “hot”. Given its strategic location between neighbouring giants China and India; its considerable domestic market of 55 million people; privatisation of many sectors and lifting of foreign trade sanctions, foreign investors, governments and NGO’s have found their way to Myanmar. Despite the overwhelming international attention for Myanmar, the country faces major challenges in its internal peace process and the transformation of often stagnant sectors into competitive ones. 

Agricultural sector

The agricultural sector accounts for one fourth of the country’s GDP and over half of the population is involved in agriculture. With its abundance of diverse fertile agricultural grounds, highlands- and lowlands, and favourable climatic conditions, Myanmar has the potential to boost its agricultural output and make farming an economically attractive activity for the rural population. Nevertheless, thirty percent of agrarian population lives in poverty and major policy-, organisation-, productivity- and education hurdles need to be overcome to make farming an economically attractive business.

The governments of Myanmar and the Netherlands have agreed on a multi-year partnership to work on structural improvements in the agricultural sector. The Netherlands supports Myanmar in the transformation of its agricultural sector in a vibrant, competitive sector that offers a sustainable living for farmers. In the agreement, farmer organisations- and commercial cooperatives are referred to as crucial vehicles to make the transformation happen. Therefore, one of the cornerstones in the partnership is shaping a conducive environment to let agricultural cooperatives and farmer organisations flourish. To realise the ambitions of this bilateral agreement, Agriterra, as cooperative expert, has been invited by the Dutch government to start its activities in Myanmar. 

Agriterra in Myanmar

Agriterra started its operations in Myanmar in March 2017. Since that moment Agriterra has focused on the identification of the key needs of farmers, farmer organisations, the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation and other stakeholders. All stakeholders point out that one of the critical success factors to transform the agricultural sector is the ability and willingness of farmers to cooperate. Myanmar will not be able to develop internationally competitive agricultural sectors unless farmers unite to improve their position versus suppliers and customers and to invest in upscaling of their activities.

Despite a clear need for farmers to organise, a history of forced membership of state-led top-down cooperatives with limited benefits for members has resulted in limited trust in cooperatives. Given this background, Agriterra has adopted a two-fold approach to accelerate the agricultural transformation in Myanmar. At the one-hand side, Agriterra will work closely together with the government to support the development of conducive agricultural policies. At the other side, Agriterra will work with pioneering farmer groups to further increase their awareness of the benefits of organised farming, strengthen their respective governance models and provide support in their journey to improved access to capital, markets and added value.