This post presents the first column of an editorial on Myanmar's agricultural policy that was included in The Voice Weekly, May 16-22, p.30.
Vocabulary:
ကဏ္ဍ ။ section
ချိုးကွေ့ ။ turn
မိန့်ကြား ။ to announce, give a speech
အရင်းအနှီး ။ investment, capital
မက ။ not only
ပိုလျှံ ။ be in excess; be superfluous, surplus
အရည်အသွေး ။ quality
မဖြစ်မနေ ။
ဆက်တည်း ။ to connect
ချိတ်ဆက် ။ to link up with, connect
မောင်းနှင် ။ drive
ချစ်တီး ။ Chettyar (Tamil money lender)
သယံဇာတ ။ natural resources
မက်လုံး ။ incentive, incentive
ဖြည့်တင်း ။ to maintain supplies, provide
ရုန်းကန် ။ struggle violently, struggle free
လွဲ ။ be wrong
လစ်လပ် ။ to be vacant, deficient, devoid of
ဖြည့်ဆည်း ။ to fulfil a need
Translation:
[note: the block quote at the end is the boxed text at the base of the first column in the original article.]
[We] are still in the "___" answer of the agricultural sector
Win Kyaw Phyo
Essayist Aung Htut's essay called "The answer to the agricultural sector is not in the farm field" in The Voice Weekly, Volume 7, Issue 20, must be read. A summarised restatement of what the essayist said (as this writer understands it) is that by the government just relaxing the current agricultural policy which should be reformed and relaxed, the lives of farmers would turn around.
In the inauguration speech of the national president U Thein Sein on March 30th, an announcement was heard that the economic policy would invest profit from agriculture to establish an industrialised country. In order to get capital from agriculture [farmers] would have to not just plant to eat, but would have to cultivate for export. Export [requires that] the agricultural sector is [မဖြစ်မနေ] reformed so that Myanmar's agricultural products are in surplus [and] so as to produce agricultural products that reach a quality level.
If it is possible to reform so as to develop the agricultural sector, then it will be possible to at once develop the lives of farmers who comprise 70 per cent of the country's population and to rescue the country from poverty, which is an issue of "a buffalo crossing water".
Agricultural and Irrigation Minister U Myint Hlaing, who is the person with the principle duty related to the agricultural sector in the Union Government, stated "An agricultural revolution will be carried out." (Yangon State Journal, Volume 7, Issue 15)
Essayist Aung Htut said that by linking the agricultural sector with the world market most farmers would undertake reforms in the area of agricultural work due to market driven forces. The English colonial government "institutionalised" the Chettyars who lent money used by the English colonial government regarding this issue; [this and] a policy of giving the protection of the law was discussed [in the essay].
After the English took control of Lower Myanmar, the extent of Myanmar's natural land resources that could be cultivated came to be known and [they] carried out three principle acts in order to bring about the work of [agricultural] extraction from the land.
1) The promulgation of laws which gave an incentive for national people to establish and cultivate new land. Law 1865 Great ဂရန် Law.
2) Giving legal protection to Chettyars who would lend money while bringing [these Chettyars] into Myanmar in order to obtain the financial capital needed for Myanmar's agricultural work.
3) Calling agricultural coolies from India who provided the labour power needed for the agricultural sector.
It can be seen that because of these activities Myanmar became the leading rice exporting country. [When] the price of rice fell because of the 1930 world financial depression...
It is human nature to want to go from the struggle of life in the heat and in the rain with buffalo and cattle to the life of working in the shade of factories and offices. Agricultural work is a life of having to work according to the weather and it cannot be wrong to want the benefit of a factory or office worker's life which is guaranteed work whatever the weather. Although this is a matter that requires hard work, it is a problem when it is not possible to fulfil this need with industrial agriculture in vacant areas. Other than that substitution with industrial tools is connected with the situation of the agricultural sector's financial capital.
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