Myanmar Rice

Myanmar Rice history and production

Myanmar has a long tradition of rice production. In the years immediately prior to World War II it was the largest rice-producing nation in the world, and it continues to be one of the ten largest rice-producing countries in terms of total yield.

Myanmar has 53.9 million people and harvests 8 million hectares of rice annually (FAO via WRS). In 2010, production was approximately 33 million tonnes (FAO via WRS), of which about 1 million is exported. It is an agricultural country with rice as the main staple food crop, yet rice yields are lower than in many other Asian countries. Rice is often grown in rotation with legumes and other crops, and considerable potential exists for diversification of rice-based cropping systems with other crops.

The major rice-producing regions are in the delta, including Ayeyarwady, Pegu, Yangon, and Mon State. These four areas make up more than half of the monsoon crop. Myanmar’s major rice ecosystems include rain-fed lowland rice, deep-water submerged rice, irrigated lowland rice, and rain-fed upland rice.

Traditional rice cultivation methods in Myanmar are divided into two categories: dry upland and wet cultivation. The dry upland cultivation methods generally practiced on wooded hillsides are typical slash and burn methods used for subsistence production. The area of traditional (Taungya) shifting cultivation on hillsides has been declining and is being replaced by a dryland crop rotation system with a much shorter fallow period.

In lowland, rain-fed, wet rice cultivation, the rice is kept partially submerged from transplanting to harvest with three distinct types of growing conditions: