An Analysis on the Factors Affecting Rice Production Efficiency in Myanmar

Abstract

(ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.)I. INTRODUCTIONMyanmar is a typical agriculture country, and possesses moderately natural resources which have underpinned the agricultural production. According to the published data in 2012, agricultural sector contributed 13.7% of total export earnings, shared GDP accounted for 37.8%, and employed 61.2% of the labor force in Myanmar (Department of Agricultural Planning, 2012). Due to the various agro-ecological conditions and large land area of Myanmar, several agricultural products have been produced abundantly. Among them, rice is the major crop for both economy and food security of the country. Therefore, efficient rice production would give more income and export revenue for the country because paddy production alone accounted about 35% of the total crop area in Myanmar. It would in turn allow Myanmar to make an essential step for construction of a developed country through reducing poverty, improving food security for all farms, fostering a more dynamic rural sector and making agriculture as a dynamic contributor to the national economy. Surely, all of these outcomes will be achieved only after framing and executing more effective policies at the sectorial and national levels.Dapice et al.(2011) pointed out that the long-term trend in per capita rice production was reduced, which needs to reform and revitalization of agriculture required significant changes in policy through the stimulation of non-farm sectors so that they could absorb labor leaving agriculture. When looking back the history, Myanmar stood as major rice exporter in the world, but this role became dull due to various reasons in the recent days. Still, rice is the most important crop for Myanmar agriculture which dominates the largest and most productive part of the country economy. Myanmar still has great potential to increase rice production in various aspects such as land reclamations, effective mechanization and inputs, and good infrastructure development for both rural and urban areas.There were several recent studies that focused on the estimation and explanation of agricultural efficiency in most of the Asian developing countries, e.g. in India (Battese and Coelli, 1992, Battese and Coelli, 1995), Thailand (Krasachat, 2004; Kiatpathomchai, 2008), Indonesia (Souires and Tabor, 1991: Brazdik, 2006), Pakistan (Shafiq and Rehman, 2000; Javed et al., 2008), Bangladesh (Rahman, 2003; Rahman, 2011), the Philippines (Villano and Fleming, 2004), and Vietnam (Tran et al., 1993; Huy, 2009; Khai and Yabe, 2011). All of these studies pointed out substantial inefficiency and the possible potentials to improve the agricultural productivity. However, there has been limited empirical attention on identifying the factors affecting improvement of rice production efficiency of Myanmar. There are many economic questions related to production efficiency of Myanmar rice farms which are still needed to be answered.Myanmar is still lag behind in modern agricultural production, especially in the application of farm mechanization. The use of modern agricultural mechanical tools in rice production will raise productivity, reduce the processing time, and bring about the economy of scale. Mechanization not only increases land and labor productivity, but reduce the need for human and animal labor. At present, agricultural production is more or less traditional in Myanmar. Modernization and development of agricultural sector require the efficient use of farm mechanization tools. Thus, this study also investigates the role of farm mechanization in efficient rice production in Myanmar.Myanmar has been exploring the use of farm machinery for crop cultivation instead of traditional cattle and manpower. However, the effort has not been entirely successful due to the lack of skills and experience. Continuous increases in the productivity and cropping intensity need the efficient utilization of machinery in farming from land preparation to harvesting and post harvesting activities. …