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Roundup: Myanmar pledges sufficient rice production for growing population |
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14:14, July 06, 2007 |
Myanmar has pledged to produce sufficient rice to meet the growing population in the years ahead by extending the cultivated area of paddy and raising per acre yield, a local weekly reported Friday.
The government has worked out program to reach the goal of meeting the demand of the country's population estimated to increase up to 100 million in the future from the present 56.5 million, Lieutenant-General Myint Swe, a high ranking defense official, who met rice traders recently, was quoted by the Myanmar Times as saying.
According to Myint Swe, in the fiscal year of 2006-07 which ended in March, Myanmar yielded 30.6 million tons of paddy from 8. 14 million hectares a paddy fields.
The country targets to increase the paddy output up to 31.5 million tons out of 8.2 million hectares sown in 2007-08 which began in April, he said.
The country's paddy production grew from 12.6 million tons in 1988-89 to 16.8 million tons in 1993-94, 21 million tons in 2000- 01 and 27.84 million tons in 2005-06, he noted, citing figures.
Myanmar's per capita rice consumption stands 510 kilograms (kg) per year which are for rural people, while it is 408 kg for urban people, according to the report.
The annual consumption of rice by the entire country is about 17 million tons.
With over 70 percent of Myanmar's population being engaged in agricultural undertakings, the sector represents the mainstay of the country's economy, contributing 50.1 percent to the national economy and achieving an average annual growth rate of 9.8 percent during the third five-year plan (2001-02 to 2005-06), according to official statistics.
For the development of the sector, emphasis has been placed to ensure self-sufficiency and surplus for export.
Statistics indicate that Myanmar exported 182,000 tons of rice in 2004-05, 180,000 tons in 2005-06 and 13,200 tons in the first half (April to September) of 2006-07.
With an aim to expand cultivable land, private entrepreneurs and companies are being allowed to reclaim vacant, fallow, virgin and wet lands across the country's states and divisions.
Out of the total cultivable land of 17.4 million hectares, the net sown area was 10.8 million hectares or 62 percent which is only 16.1 percent of the total land area, making that there is vast potential for further development of the sector.
Along with paddy, Myanmar's other principal crops are known as beans and pulses, oil crops, cotton, sugarcane and culinary crops.
With triple cropping round the year, Myanmar expects that the production of rice and other commodities will increase year by year.
Other statistics show that Myanmar exported over 930 million U. S. dollars' agricultural produces in 2006-07, a sharp increase of 75.4 percent over 2005-06.
Source: Xinhua
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