Interview
Border News Agency
Mrauk-U, July 6.
Although there are over 1.2 million acres of paddy fields in the Arakan region, farmers estimate that less than half of them are currently being cultivated.
They say the decline in cultivated farmland is due to factors such as high costs of agricultural inputs, rising labor wages, inability to sell rice and paddy products, and regional instability.
In addition, the price of a sack of urea fertilizer has reached nearly 200,000 kyats, while a sack of compound fertilizer is nearing 500,000 kyats. Diesel fuel now costs almost 2000,000 kyats per pipa (barrel).
Due to these conditions, farmers are facing significant challenges in cultivating monsoon paddy, according to an Arakanese farmer who spoke to Border News Agency.
“If there isn’t much evidence, it’s enough to get through. That’s how they get released. Just as I’ve explained, other villagers also give similar testimonies. One person’s statement alone in a village doesn’t determine the outcome. What will others say? From what we’ve observed, the difficulties are the same from village to village.”
“After broadcasting the paddy seeds, we have to apply herbicide again. But herbicide is expensive. If we don’t use it, we have to replant manually in the spots where weeds have taken over. That means more labor is needed. But we can’t afford enough labor. So, we just broadcast the seeds as best as we can. To be honest, it’s not very successful. These are the kinds of challenges we’re facing.”
“People have arrived only in our village. We don’t know what the situation is like in other villages. From what I’ve heard, seeds are hard to find or not sufficient in some places. But to know for sure, you’d need to visit and assess each village individually. We don’t have time to do that. As for our village, I can say the seeds are sufficient.”
“The paddy seeds have been broadcast. Saying we didn’t cultivate isn’t exactly right, we did prepare seedlings, which takes about 45 days. But during that time, we couldn’t just wait around. We had no work and no income to support our basic needs. When it’s time to transplant, it has to be done within a specific time frame day by day, without delay.”
“That’s why labor is needed. If you can’t afford to hire workers, then cultivation becomes difficult. So we end up just broadcasting the seeds however we can. The daily wage is about 25,000 kyats for a male worker and 15,000 kyats for a female worker. At a time like this, when it’s already hard to make ends meet, we simply can’t afford to hire labor, so we just broadcast the seeds.”
“The farmland I’ve plowed so far is about one and a half acres. In terms of yield, with the Kar Ni variety, I usually get about four to five baskets per acre. So, for one acre, the yield is around five baskets.”
“Right now, I’ve invested around 250,000 kyats. But that amount doesn’t cover the upcoming costs like fertilizer, herbicides, and the food expenses for the workers I’ll need to hire during the harvest. I really do need support whether it comes from any organization, the Arakan Army, or even international groups, I would appreciate any kind of assistance.”
We still need some amount of diesel for plowing session, but we can’t really afford it. I plow fields for fellow villagers. When I help them plow, they usually pay around 100,000 kyats or 60,000 kyats per acre. For fields that haven’t been plowed at all or are overgrown with weeds, they pay 300,000 kyats. Last year, I plowed fields for 260,000 kyats per acre that’s the exact figure. But this year, no one can afford to pay that much. Some can only offer 50,000 kyats or 40,000 kyats. Just as those who plow fields are facing hardships, so are those who provide the plowing service.
“We’re simply pointing out the difficulties so that the Arakanese organizations can understand what kind of support might be needed. But that doesn’t mean we are in a position to demand help. What we’re presenting is just to show how much people here can manage, and what they can’t do. The challenges I mentioned earlier are already part of that picture. As for us, we don’t even know how or in what way to ask for support. The hardships we face are many—our livelihoods are not stable, and as I said earlier, even the plowing situation isn’t going well. We can’t afford to pay for plowing, and those who do the plowing can’t afford to do it for free either. So yes, we are facing a lot of difficulties.”
“The hardship we face is that, although we work in farming, it’s still not enough to cover our basic needs. But we have no choice—not working isn’t an option, so even if we don’t want to, we have to keep going. During this plowing season, we’re doing as much as we can manage. But after plowing, we’ll need herbicides and fuel. Right now, both herbicides and fuel are very expensive. It’s becoming impossible to afford them. That’s the main difficulty we’re facing. For now, we’re just plowing as much as we can.”
