October 11, 2020
The local growers are unhappy with the market, even their crops from farmland are giving high yield during the COVID-19 period.
The local people from Kayah State are cultivating the crops for their livelihoods on a manageable scale.
“We mainly cultivate vegetables in our village. We are growing maize in monsoon and other fruits in winter. We also grow onion, tomato and cabbage. The prices of the crop are different from that of the past. The price of the crops is unstable during the pandemic period. There are also a few buyers in the vegetable market. The current economic situation during the COVID-19 period has declined. We have many difficulties during this period. The demand from the wholesale sellers has also declined. For example, we can sell only ten instead of 100 items,” said U Khun Maung Than, a local grower from Linphone village.
We could not make any profit as we could not sell our crops well. So, we want to request the authorities to seek the market for us, he added.
Previously, the online price hit K3,000 per viss. Although the cost of onion drops to K2,000 per viss, there is no buyer. Now, the crops are harvested, and we distribute them to Loikaw, and the surplus crops are sent to Aungban, he explained.
Starting from the outbreak of COVID-19, we have been earning only K2,000 per day instead of K5,000. We have many families, and we are facing many difficulties, said Daw Nam Nyunt Yin, waged labour.
The local people from Linphone rely upon the traditional farming businesses on a manageable scale. There are over 300 houses in the village, and nearly half of the villagers are waged labours. —Ko Sai (Loikaw) (Translated by Hay Mar)
