Agricultural research is a priority for the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Irrigation (MOALI) in Myanmar, evidenced by its emphasis on the development of an Agricultural Research Master Plan (ARMP). The ARMP is a 20-year plan that focuses on building agricultural research capacity. In February, IFPRI Senior Research Fellow Kristin Davis and I were tasked with the responsibility of exploring how extension and advisory services can be better integrated into Myanmar’s ARMP as MOALI drafts this forward-looking plan. To this end, we traveled to Myanmar in February 2020 to define a scope of work for IFPRI to provide recommendations to improve the effectiveness of extension and bolster research-extension-farmer-education linkages in Myanmar.
Dr. Nilar Aung and me on a field visit in Monywa
View from the roof of the Farmer Channel Studio
Our trip was coordinated by Michigan State University (MSU)’s Duncan Boughton, who led the USAID Feed the Future Food Security Policy project in Myanmar, the precursor to the current Feed the Future Myanmar Agriculture Policy Support Activity (MAPSA), led by IFPRI’s Myanmar Strategy Support Program. Dr. Nilar Aung, a consultant with MSU, organized and skillfully led our meetings with government officials and several field visits. We kicked off our trip with a meeting with IFPRI’s team in our new Myanmar office to learn more about extension in the Myanmar context. We also met with other key private players working on extension.
The Director of Extension at DoA gave us an overview of the extension system in Myanmar—we learned that there are approximately 7,000 extension agents in the country, each in charge of 5,000-10,000 acres and 200 farmers. We were surprised to learn about a number of DoA designed apps for farmers, the most popular of which seems to be one on pest management called, “Plant Protection,” or PP for short. After our informative session with the Director of Extension, we were taken for a tour of the call center and resource library, which also catalogues farmer newsletters/newspapers.
Kristin and I also gave a guest lecture on “Agricultural Extension and Impact Evaluation” to students in Duncan Boughton’s Agricultural Economics class at Yezin Agricultural University (YAU).
Dr. Nilar Aung with staff from DoA and DAR on a field visit
Director of Extension, DoA
Scenes from the farmer library
We also got the opportunity to visit a demo site for farmers, an “integrated high technology village” and a knowledge center. At the integrated high technology village, extension agents were being trained on fall armyworm prevention using traps. At the knowledge center we got the opportunity to observe a training program for farmers on fertilizer best practices.
Fall armyworm training of trainers
Fall armyworm trap
Knowledge center funded through an IFAD project
On February 6, we had the opportunity to visit the Farmer Channel Studio where informational content for farmer TV shows is created and produced.
From February 7–10, Nilar Aung and I conducted a field visit in Monywa, the location of two Regional Research Centers (RRC) that were set up two years ago to encourage collaboration between DoA and DAR. During our visit, we met with input suppliers, interviewed farmers, and visited demonstration plots. We also visited the RRC in Sagaing and the Commodity Exchange Center in Monywa.
A shopkeeper holding a pyi—local unit of measurement—at his input supply shop Pyin OO Lwin
After the field visit, I returned to Yangon for more informative meetings that helped widen my understanding of the context of agricultural extension in Myanmar. I hope that this extremely productive trip will be followed by more like it (once the current COVID-19 situation is under control, of course). In the meantime, we will do what we can remotely to better understand the research-extension-farmer-education linkages and how to strengthen them.
Interviews with farmers in
Lat Taung Gyi in Pale Township
Farmer at her field, which is being used as a demonstration plot
RRC staff showing us their efforts using manual pollination to create hybrid varieties for chickpea
Commodity exchange center in Monywa
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Click on thumbnail to view photo
Click on thumbnail to view photo
Click on thumbnail to view photo
Students on campus at YAU
Farmer Channel Studio
Students on campus at YAU
Our next set of meetings were with officials from the Department of Agriculture (DoA) and the Department of Agricultural Research (DAR) in Nay Pyi Taw, the country’s capital.
Simrin Makhija
Senior Research Analyst, International Food Policy Research Institute
IFPRI Blog / Issue Post / May 22, 2020
The work for this program is supported by the United States Agency for International Development and the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets