30 June
For farmers, significant profits can only be expected when they see success in production and a good price for their crops.
This shows that announcing a basic price for crops is sine qua non between traders and farmers, while the government must strive towards ensuring that prices do not fall below the base price.
Basic prices for crops, especially for rice, should always ensure the rights and interests of our farmers.
In March 2018, the Myanmar Rice Federation announced the basic price for rice, at the request of State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, setting the price for full quality rice at K500,000 per 100 baskets. That price was fixed for 2018, after taking into consideration the market situation and costs for growing rice.
It was found that the price for rice in 2018 was not helpful for farmers in the following year, and it caused concern for farmers, though they harvested a high yield. Basic prices must be announced every season.
At a meeting with local farmers in Ayeyawady Delta on 28 June, the State Counsellor heard of challenges farmers face and urged authorities to announce the basic price for rice every season, as the processes are not for a single season or even one year.
A price for a crop is calculated based upon basic factors, such as market and production prices. Yet these prices remain fluid, season by season and year by year.
In other countries, basic prices for crops are announced before the planting season, after studying local and foreign market situations. Based upon basic prices, farmers choose the crop which is expected to be profitable for them when they harvest.
In our country, too, even if basic prices are not announced for all crops, they should be announced for the main crops, such as peanut, sesame, corn and others that are widely grown by farmers.
Further, weaknesses and strengths of the basic price must be studied and reviewed year after year.
Every time there is a good harvest of rice, farmers should not have to brace themselves for a shock due to a fall in the price. The high yield was predictable and it is the ministry’s concern to protect the interests of both the farmers, as well as consumers.
Only when farmers earn profits in the agriculture sector, can they pass along the integrity and value of agriculture to their children, as the agriculture sector continues to play a large part in the development of the country.
GNLM
