Reforming Myanmar's agriculture policy (3)

This post presents the third (and final) column of an editorial on Myanmar's agricultural policy that was included in The Voice Weekly, May 16-22, p.30.

Vocabulary:

သက်သေပြ ။ to prove
အနှံ့အပြား ။ all over; everywhere
ထွန်တုံး ။ log to which the teeth of harrow are attached
ပိုး ။ insect
မွှား ။ parasite
နှိမ်နင်း ။ put down; suppress (rebellion); subdue (the enemy)
ရိတ်သိမ်း ။ reap, harvest
အသုံးချ ။ to put into use, exploit, applied
အရင်းအမြစ် ။ source; root; base; origin
ကျွမ်းဝင် ။ to become intimate friends
ခေါင်းတွဲ ။ locomotive engine
အတန်အသင့် ။ moderately

Translation:

Regarding the third issue, [which is the issue of] addressing the scarcity of agricultural workers through industrial agriculture, the problem of the scarcity of agricultural workers is the main problem experienced in the field of agriculture today. Due to migration to work in foreign countries and the many work opportunities that emerged in the country in accordance with the economic system practiced after 1988, labour power has come to be scarce in the field of agricultural work.

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 advantage 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 [of labour] with industrial tools is connected with the situation of the agricultural sector's financial capital. Although the present state of agricultural production in the regions damaged by [Cyclone] Nargis has been proven the statement that it will be possible to replace agricultural work using draft animals with machines and to resolve [the problem], everywhere in Myanmar [the situation] is still "ယမထာရွှေကြိမ်လုံးရယ်နဲ့ ထွန်တုံးကိုတဲ့ ခြေတော်တင့့့့်..."

Other items, such as quality land testing, correct systems, the suppression of insect disease, the application of agricultural techniques that extend harvest time with correct benefit, locating and extracting water from its source, and being able to mill [rice] so as to get full quality, are headings for issues related to technical knowledge and which should each be discussed with appropriate specialists; and farmers will have to work hard in order to become intimately familiar with these issues.

If it can be summarised, it is correct that the agricultural policy reform which Saya Aung Htut speaks of is an issue which must be carried out. Only after changing the locomotive engine will it be possible for the train cars in the rear to have correct motion and go on the wanted journey. After reforming that policy there will still be many issues to do. The answer to the agricultural sector is still moderately in the farm field, Saya Aung Htut.