Myanmar S Livestock Sector An Overview Of Production And Consumption In 2022

The poultry and pig production subsectors are facing significant financial stress, primarily due to a combination of increasing production costs and declining consumer demand. Among the challenges reported by livestock raisers, the most frequent ones were sickness or death of animals, followed closely by high input prices. The cost of production for poultry and swine doubled over a two-year period, largely driven by rising feed and other input costs. Specifically, the price of 50 kg of broiler chicken feed increased by 61 percent between 2021 and 2022, while the price of 30 kg of pig feed increased by 51 percent during the same period. These significant cost increases have led to a notable decrease in livestock income in real terms. Moreover, the triple crisis has affected consumption patterns, with households reducing their expenditure on food, particularly animal-sourced food. As a result, livestock consumption has also decreased, adding to the challenges faced by the livestock industry. In our sample, we found that 44 percent of households were involved in livestock raising, with 33 percent of households earning income from this activity. However, it's concerning that 18 percent of these households had to resort to selling livestock as a coping strategy to meet their daily needs rather than as a deliberate business decision. This paper presents a comprehensive overview of the Myanmar livestock sector during the period from September 2021 to August 2022. It delves into various aspects, starting with livestock production, examining the challenges faced by farmers, production costs, and income. Additionally, the study analyzes the trends in animal-sourced food consumption in Myanmar. Finally, the paper discusses the critical issues and challenges that the sector is likely to encounter and proposes several recommended actions.

"The assessment builds on the work of the Livestock, Environment and Development (LEAD) Initiative"--Pref.

Greenhouse gas emissions by the livestock sector could be cut by as much as 30 percent through the wider use of existing best practices and technologies. FAO conducted a detailed analysis of GHG emissions at multiple stages of various livestock supply chains, including the production and transport of animal feed, on-farm energy use, emissions from animal digestion and manure decay, as well as the post-slaughter transport, refrigeration and packaging of animal products. This report represents the most comprehensive estimate made to-date of livestocks contribution to global warming as well as the sectors potential to help tackle the problem. This publication is aimed at professionals in food and agriculture as well as policy makers.

Traditional forms of livestock-rearing and fishing have been central components in rural livelihoods in Myanmar for centuries and remain important today. More capital-intensive forms of marine fishing, aquaculture, and poultry farming began to expand during the early-1990s and grew briskly thereafter. This paper summarizes the status of the supply side of livestock, capture fisheries and aquaculture sectors in Myanmar, based on analysis of nationally representative data extracted from the Myanmar Living Conditions Survey 2017 and supporting information from other recent surveys and secondary sources. We examine levels of livestock ownership, participation in capture fisheries and aquaculture, reasons for rearing livestock, ownership of fishing assets, and household earnings from all three activities. We also discuss the characteristics of more geographically clustered, capitalintensive forms of poultry and swine farming, fishing, and fish farming, and the downturn in these sectors beginning in 2020 with the twin crises of COVID-19 and the coup. We conclude with a discussion of possible future directions for livestock farming, capture fisheries and aquaculture in Myanmar, along with priorities for sectoral upgrading.

This study explores the transformation of Myanmar’s rice value chain (VC) over a period of liberalization, reform, and infrastructure expansion from 2013 to 2019, and over a period of multiple crises from 2020 to 2022 including a military coup and widespread conflict. We analyze modernization over these periods at different levels of the VC, including upstream (farms), midstream (mills), and downstream (rice vendors). We rely upon unique data from large-scale phone surveys collected at different segments of the rice value chain – including farm and post-farmgate – complemented with insights from key informant interviews, and secondary data. The major findings are the following: There have been large transformations within the rice value chain over the last decade, but modernization in some areas decelerated due to conflict. We note a process of modernization, upscaling, quality improvements, and increased outsourcing of agricultural activities to specialized service providers by farmers. The majority of this transformation occurred during the period of relative stability from 2013 to 2019. We show that although modernization continued during the crisis years that followed, including an improvement in rice quality and an expansion of modern mills, many modernization processes decelerated. Mills and farms in insecure and conflict-affected areas participated to a lesser extent and the modernization gaps widened during the crisis years. Local rice market conditions improved with better-quality rice sold locally. A large share of food vendors indicated better rice quality overall at the time of survey compared to 3 and 10 years earlier. Sixty-eight percent of vendors reported that there was no foreign matter in the rice that they sold a decade ago. That share has increased by 23 percentage points to 91 percent in 2022. In domestic retail, modern retail is (yet) negligible in rice distribution at the national level. Rice exports quadrupled, with Myanmar becoming globally the 5th biggest exporter of rice by the end of 2019. Rice exports have proven to be resilient during the crisis years. Rice exports increased dramatically despite more stringent, and costly, non-tariff measures for exports such as phyto-sanitary requirements. Rice is exported through different channels, moving away from low-quality rice trucked to China, to relatively better-quality and often certified rice being shipped on large vessels to a more diverse set of countries. We see shifting challenges over time – due to banking, electricity, and mobility problems that millers and traders adjusted to, at an increasing cost – but national exports mostly stabilized, in the crisis years compared to the period before, seemingly as major rice producing areas - except Sagaing - were less affected by conflicts, Midstream, we see rapid uptake and investments in modern drying machines – especially mechanized dryers – and modern milling machinery in the form of new mill starts and upgrading from traditional mills. The average number of modern mills operating in the miller’s same village tract/ward increased by about 60 percent from 2013 to 2019 and by a further 10 percent in 2022. The trend for traditional mills is the opposite: declining by 50 percent between 2013 and 2019 and a further 15 percent in 2022. This modernization has been driven by local firm investments as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has been limited. Upstream (at the farm level), we note a substantial expansion of modern input use. Rice seed markets have become more active in the 2010s. The sale of branded rice seeds doubled over the last decade. Chemical fertilizer use also increased over the last decade. While use was lower in 2022 than before the crisis, they were still at a higher level than a decade earlier. We also see increased use of modern harvest and post-harvest technologies and more outsourcing of harvest and post-harvest activities, mostly linked to these modern technologies and practices. In 2022, 54 percent of the farmers reported to have used a combine-harvester on most rice plots. Farmers hiring in tractors increased by 33 percentage points over the last decade. Outsourcing drying services has also increased, but the growth has been more modest: 22 percent of the farmers indicated that they outsourced the drying of paddy. Modern dryer use increased accordingly. We find significant negative relationships between severe local conflict and many modernization outcomes. Severe conflict is found to negatively impact various modernization aspects, notably the adoption of tractor services and modern dryers at the farm level, and the prevalence of modern mills and drying equipment in midstream operations. Modernization has not been everywhere inclusive. More remote and smaller firms are participating less in modern practices. More remote farmers show smaller growth in adoption of combine harvesters, modern dryers, and modern mills, while smaller farmers have smaller growth in the use of combine harvesters and drying service providers. In the midstream, mills in remote areas show smaller changes in the share of modern mills in their areas, while smaller mills have significantly slower growth in modern service provision and lower investment rates in value-added machinery. For many of these modernization outcomes, the gaps across firm size and remoteness widened during the crisis years. Our findings point to three main implications for the modernization of Myanmar’s rice VC. Private-market oriented reform leads to rapid modernization in VCs, while heavy intervention – e.g., low reference prices for rice; limits on intranational trade; control of imports and exports through an export licensing system; and currency manipulation through a dual exchange rate system – may jeopardize VC modernization and increase uncertainty throughout VCs. More inclusive transformation should be promoted. Smaller and more remote farms and mills are showing slower growth across many modernization outcomes, raising concerns about livelihood improvements for those participating less in the VC’s modernization. Conflict negatively affects modernization at the farm and VC midstream. The study reaffirms the crucial need for stable political and economic environments to foster effective agricultural growth and transformation.

We have analyzed oilseed production patterns, productivity, and profitability for the 2023 monsoon season from the Myanmar Agriculture Performance Survey (MAPS), conducted at the beginning of 2024. This survey encompassed plots managed by 802 oilseed producers, distributed across all states/regions of the country. Our findings reveal: Overall, oilseed productivity increased by an average of 2 percent during the 2023 monsoon compared to the previous year. Performance differed by crop with soybean and sesame experiencing moderate increases in yield, while groundnut and sunflower witnessed a decline in average yields of one percent. This mediocre performance stemmed from low input usage (particularly fertilizer), similar labor inputs, and a high occurrence of natural shocks, notably pests, diseases, and weeds, and heavy rain and storms. Despite decreasing fertilizer prices, chemical fertilizer use remained low in oilseed production, with 45 percent of farmers using chemical fertilizer in monsoon 2023. Further, chemical fertilizer use did not increase in oilseed production compared to the previous monsoon. Organic fertilizer use, on the other hand, is high in oilseed production, as 63 percent of farmers applied it in the 2023 monsoon season. During this time, organic fertilizer was used by 74 percent of groundnut farmers and 76 percent of oilseed farmers in the Dry Zone. This is due to the availability of organic manure in the Dry Zone where oilseed production is high. Groundnut, soybean, and sesame farmers relied on seeds saved from last year’s harvest, while 67 percent of sunflower farmers purchased seeds from ag-input retailers or the government. The percentage of oilseed farmers using self-preserved seed – instead of obtaining it from the market - increased by 9 percentage points compared to last monsoon. Draught animal ownership remains important for oilseed production, especially in the Dry Zone. Seventy-one percent of oilseed farmers used draught animals in production, with 50 percent using their owned draught animals. Thirty-nine percent of oilseed farmers reported being impacted by climatic or other production shocks during this monsoon, with pests, diseases, and weeds (reported by 36 percent of farmers who experienced shocks), heavy rain/ storms (reported by 34 percent), droughts (reported by 22 percent), and irregular rainfall (reported by 21 percent) having significant adverse effects on yields. Oilseed prices at the farm level increased by between 20 (soybean) and 45 (sunflower) percent, reflecting changes in international oilseed prices as well as the depreciation of the MMK. Real – in terms of the cost of an average food basket – gross margins from oilseed farming during the monsoon of 2023 increased by between 2 (soybean and groundnut) and 12 (sesame) percent compared to the previous year. Real sunflower gross margins declined. At the same time, nominal profits increased by 33 percent since the previous monsoon. High price inflation tempered the increase in real profits. Twenty percent of oilseed farmers faced significant issues in terms of marketing, including low prices for crops, insecurity, and having trouble reaching traders. These issues likely decreased the profitability of oilseed farming for the affected farmers. Oilseed farmers reflecting on this monsoon compared to last, perceived higher profits, suggesting that the oilseed sector continues to be a lucrative choice for farmers. These findings have several policy implications: Ensure access to quality seeds: Reusing seeds from previous seasons reduces yields, especially when combined with climate shocks. The private sector should make quality seeds and seeds with high oil content available to boost oilseed crop yields. Promote organic fertilizer use: Organic fertilizer is predominantly used in the Dry Zone. Expand its use to other agro-ecological zones to improve long-term soil fertility and help farmers mitigate the impact of fluctuating chemical fertilizer prices. The private sector and NGOs through in-person and online platforms can provide training on making compost from farm residues for farmers without access to animal manures. Enhance pest and disease management: The private sector should provide farmers with access to better pest and disease management resources, including training and access to effective, environmentally friendly pesticides and herbicides. Strengthen climate resilience: The private sector can strengthen climate resilience by developing and disseminating climate-resilient agricultural practices, providing training on drought-tolerant and flood-resistant crop varieties through in-person and online platforms, and offering financial incentives and technological support to farmers. Create secure marketing channels: Farmers face low crop prices and safety issues during trade, along with difficulties in reaching traders due to security concerns. Develop secure and stable marketing channels to address these challenges. Increase loans for oilseed crops: Given the higher production costs of groundnut, sesame, and soybean compared to sunflower, MADB should increase their loan amounts for these crops to enhance their productivity. The private sector could also lend money to oilseed farmers, given the increase in oilseed production stemming from their perceived profitability and importance to the government.

Groundnut, sesame, soybean, and sunflower crops are grown across Myanmar. Nationally, 15 percent of farmers were engaged in oilseed cultivation in the post/pre-monsoon 2023 season, while 17 percent of farmers planted oilseeds in the 2022 monsoon season. Among the agro-ecological zones, the Dry Zone had the largest share of farmers growing oilseeds as their most important non-paddy crop. At the same time, the percentage of farmers who grew oilseeds as their most important non-paddy crop in 2023 declined overall and in the Dry Zone compared to the post/pre monsoon seasons of 2022 and 2021. In the post/pre-monsoon 2023 season, 7 and 6 percent of the farmers grew sesame and groundnut, respectively. Only 2 percent of farmers grew soybeans while 1 percent grew sunflowers. Groundnut, sunflower, and sesame were mainly grown in the Dry Zone, while soybean was mainly grown in the Hills and Mountainous Region. The farm size of oilseed growing households was slightly larger than that of the average crop growing household, 5.7 acres compared with 4.7 acres. Most oilseed farmers specialize in oilseed production and plant more than half of their cultivated acres to oilseeds. Oilseed farmers grew oilseeds on 64 percent of their cultivated acres in the 2023 pre/post monsoon season and 36 percent of their cultivated acres in the monsoon season.

Myanmar’s agrifood system has proven surprisingly resilient in the face of multiple crises—COVID 19, the military coup, economic mismanagement, global price instability, and widespread conflict—with respect to production and exports. Household welfare has not been resilient, however. High rates of inflation, especially food price inflation, have resulted in dietary degradation across all house hold groups, especially those dependent on casual wage labor. Among household members, young children experience the highest rates of inadequate dietary quality. Expanded social protection to improve access to better-quality diets for vulnerable households and individuals is therefore needed. Beyond the current political crisis, increased public and private investment in a more efficient and dynamic agrifood system should be a high priority. This will help drive down poverty rates and ensure access to healthy diets in the near term, while laying the foundation for sustained growth and structural transformation of the economy.