Browsing by Subject "Myanmar"

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An economic analysis of fish demand and livelihood outcomes of small-scale aquaculture in Myanmar
(2021) Aung, Yee Mon; Zeller, Manfred
Given that capture fishery production has either remained stagnant or declined globally, aquaculture has been responsible for the massive growth in the supply of fish to fulfill increasing demand and has also improved livelihoods. The development of the fishery sector, particularly aquaculture, has the potential to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). New technologies and effective fishery management policies play critical roles in achieving this sectors contribution to the SDGs. Although aquaculture in Myanmar is dominated by large-scale fish farming, a larger number of small-scale aquaculture (SSA) households exist either legally or illegally because profitability and employment opportunities have enticed them to enter the sector. However, the potential of SSA farmers and their challenges are still overlooked. Even though Myanmar is one of the major consumers of fish and producers of aquaculture fish worldwide, to date, a holistic approach that considers the demand and supply side of Myanmars aquaculture sector is rare. The thesis focuses on two main topics. One topic is an analysis of the disaggregated fish demand system. Empirical evidence on whether the aquaculture sector can meet household demand through adequate availability of and accessibility to fish is vital to ensure household food and nutrition security and understand the future of the fish demand. The second main topic focuses on the two aspects of production based on SSA farms; production efficiency and impacts on welfare outcomes from the adoption of sustainable aquaculture (SA) technologies. To fulfill fish demand by increasing the supply of fish from farms, production efficiency of the farmers needs to improve to generate profitable in the face of lower fish prices that will accompany an increase in supply. In addition, traditional aquaculture production practices are risky and are not a long-term option for SSA farmers. Therefore, renewing or modifying productive resources and implementing new technologies may play critical roles in the development of a sustainable SSA sector. The study on the fish demand analysis in Chapter 2 relies on nationally representative data from the "Myanmar Poverty and Living Conditions survey (MPLCS) in 2015,". For the production side analysis in Chapters 3 and 4, primary survey data originate from 440 SSA households collected in three townships in Phyapon District, Ayeyarwady Delta region, Myanmar. Chapter 2 estimates the demand parameters differentiated by fish supply sources (aquaculture, freshwater capture, marine capture, and dried fish) and household groups (wealth group and household location) in Myanmar using a three-stage budgeting framework, combined with a Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System (QUAIDS). The results reveal that fish demand from all sources of fish and household groups increases with income because fish is the second most crucial food commodity after rice in Myanmar. A substantial share of the increasing demand for all sources of fish is likely to come from poor and rural households with growing incomes due to their higher-income elasticity for all sources of fish. Moreover, less elastic price elasticity of demand in most cases for poor and rural households indicates that those households have less animal protein substitutes for fish available and accessible because fish is the cheapest form of an animal protein source in Myanmar. Due to the income responsiveness of aquaculture fish, its demand will grow faster than that of other fish sources. This study confirms that the rapidly growing aquaculture sector can compensate for the concurrent stagnation of capture fisheries production to fulfill the increase in the fish demand. The studys findings suggest that effective management policies and new technologies are essential to sustain the fish supply from capture fisheries and aquaculture. Intervention programs that sustainably increase aquaculture production will generate the most effective and significant effects on securing households food and nutrition security in the long-run. Chapter 3 analyzes the current technical efficiency level of SSA farms and the link between womens level of participation in decision-making (WPDM) activities and the technical efficiency of fish farming using the two-stage double bootstrap data envelopment analysis (DEA) method. The results show that most SSA farming households are not technically efficient, performing in a range of 45%-60% below the production frontier. All the inputs used contain slacks, such that all of them are over-utilized in inappropriate ratios. This study reveals that while some of the households socio-economic and production characteristics are significant shifters to enhance efficiency of fish farming, decision-making power of women at the household-level is found to significantly improve the level of technical efficiency through its effects on the ability of household members to allocate and organize resources optimally. This study highlights the vital need to promote intervention programs targeted at improving the technical efficiency of SSA farming households. Policies and intervention programs aimed at increasing productivity in the aquaculture sector would benefit by including women empowerment programs to reduce gender inequality and promote equity. Chapter 4 evaluates the determinants and the impacts of SA technologies adoption on SSA households’ welfare outcomes using the endogenous switching regression (ESR) model. The significant value of the correlation coefficients between the error terms of the adoption decision and the outcome equations, as well as heterogeneity in the outcome variables between adopters and non-adopters, confirm that the ESR model is more appropriate than data pooling in a regression model. The models actual and counterfactual results highlight that the adoption of SA technologies increases the SSA households welfare outcomes, measured by fish yield per ha, Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS), and Total Food Consumption Score (TFCS). However, the actual adopters would benefit the most in terms of fish yield per ha and TFCS from adopting SA technologies because the average treatment effects of adoption on adopters are larger than that of non-adopters for these variables. The results highlight that household knowledge about aquaculture production and information sources are main drivers for the adoption decision and improving welfare outcomes. Therefore, appropriate policies targeting SSA development should emphasize the promotion of farmers awareness and adoption of SA technologies by providing improved extension services. This thesis findings contribute to the current debate that the development of the aquaculture sector can help achieve some of the SDGs. In particular, aquaculture can help end hunger through increased food security by making fish more widely available and accessible by increasing the supply of fish. Moreover, aquaculture can improve gender equality and women’s empowerment through creating employment opportunities linked to the aquaculture sector. Given the lower technical efficiency level and positive welfare impacts of SA technologies, it is recommended that the government and other development organizations disseminate information on the improved aquaculture practices and suitable input use through improved extension services to SSA farmers. Due to the dominance of a single fish species in the aquaculture sector, the government needs to support research and development programs in the hatchery sector for a new generation of species. Another recommendation is to reformulate the current "Farmland Law 2012" because it puts restrictions on converting agricultural land to fish ponds, which is preventing farmers entering the aquaculture sector legally. The above policy recommendations are crucial to achieve growth in the SSA sector and increase women’s intra-household decision-making power, thereby opening the door to improve livelihoods.
A multifaceted analysis of Myanmar’s rice sector: gender perspectives, international competitiveness, and farmers’ emotional well-being
(2025) Chan, Nandar Aye; Zeller, Manfred
The agricultural sector is vital to Myanmar’s economic development, food security, and poverty reduction. However, recent global shifts in commodity markets, combined with local crises such as climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic, conflicts, economic instability, and rising fertilizer prices and operational costs, have significantly affected Myanmar’s agri-food sector. These challenges threaten the performance of the agricultural sector, particularly the rice sector, which is essential for many livelihoods, rural employment, and export earnings. The sector faces declining productivity, reduced incomes, rising debt burdens, and increased vulnerability, especially among smallholder farmers, including women. Therefore, the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Irrigation (MOALI) is dedicated to strengthening the rice sector through promoting inclusive gender roles, enhancing competitiveness in the domestic and international rice markets, and safeguarding the socio-economic well-being of all farmers. Addressing Myanmar’s key agricultural challenges and aligning with the objectives of MOALI, this dissertation investigates three critical areas (Chapters 2 to 4) to make a modest knowledge contribution to the sustainability and long-term development of the country’s rice sector. Despite government initiatives and extensive research on Myanmar’s rice sector, three important aspects remain underexplored: the gender gap in productivity, cost competitiveness, and the role of productivity in mediating shocks to farmers’ well-being. Specifically, this dissertation has three main objectives: 1) to estimate the magnitude of the gender gap in rice productivity and identify the factors contributing to this gap; 2) to analyze the cost competitiveness of rice production by examining production costs, cost efficiency, and the potential effect of improving cost efficiency on the country’s global competitiveness; and 3) to examine the effects of shocks on farmers’ well-being and explore how rice productivity mediates this relationship. Understanding these issues is crucial for designing policies that improve the performance of Myanmar’s rice sector and strengthen farmers’ resilience. The dissertation employs a quantitative approach, using household survey data and other secondary data sources. Particularly, data for Chapters 2 and 3 originate from the 2014 Area-Based Farm Household Survey in the Ayeyarwady Delta Region, administered by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) under the Metrics and Indicators for Tracking in the Global Rice Science Partnership project. Chapter 3 also incorporates nationwide phone survey datasets, including the Myanmar Household Welfare Survey (MHWS) and the Myanmar Agricultural Performance Survey (MAPS), conducted by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) during 2021-2022. This cumulative dissertation consists of five chapters. Chapter 1 presents the introduction. Chapter 2 examines the gender gap. Chapter 3 focuses on the cost competitiveness of Myanmar’s rice sector. Then, Chapter 4 investigates the mediating role of rice productivity in the shocks-happiness relationship, and Chapter 5 concludes the dissertation and provides policy recommendations. Chapter 2 presents an analysis of the gender productivity gap in Myanmar’s rice sector. The analysis focuses on the Ayeyarwady Delta region, one of the three major agroecological zones for rice cultivation in Myanmar, using IRRI regional plot-level data. The study addresses seasonal variation and assesses jointly managed plots. The Oaxaca-Blinder mean decomposition approach is used to identify the causes of gender differences in monsoon and summer paddy productivity. The empirical findings show that women managers are 7 percent less productive than men in monsoon paddy production, with 95 percent of this gap explained by structural effects. Plots jointly managed by women and men outperform those managed by either women or men alone in summer paddy production. The results show that seasonality affects the disparity in gender productivity. Divorced women account for a large portion of the productivity differential among non-married women managers. Initiatives to eliminate the gender yield gap in Myanmar should pay attention to the unique requirements and obstacles that women encounter throughout different seasons and tailor their interventions accordingly. Chapter 3 conducts a comparative analysis of production costs among major rice-producing countries and estimates the cost efficiency of rice farming in Myanmar using a stochastic frontier cost function model. Moreover, this study examines the link between cost efficiency and domestic resource costs (DRC), a key indicator of global competitiveness in rice production. The study also considers the seasonal variations in Myanmar during both the dry and wet seasons. The findings show that Myanmar ranks as the second least expensive rice-producing country among selected Asian countries. The mean cost efficiencies are 89% and 86% for the dry and wet seasons, respectively. Both dry and wet seasons of rice production demonstrate a comparative advantage. The results also show that cost efficiency positively contributes to global competitiveness in both seasons. Focusing on education, farm size, seed procurement strategies, and training programs can increase cost efficiency, thereby further improving global competitiveness in rice production. Chapter 4 examines the effects of shocks on farmers’ happiness in Myanmar and explores the mediation role of rice productivity in this relationship. The study uses nationwide phone survey datasets from Myanmar, provided by the IFPRI, specifically focusing on the rice sector to assess productivity. The study applies the mediation analysis outlined by Acharya et al. (2016) and estimates the average controlled direct effect (ACDE) of shocks while accounting for rice productivity as a mediator. To ensure robustness, additional causal mediation analysis is employed. The results indicate that rice productivity partially mediates the shock-happiness relationship. This suggests that shocks influence happiness through additional pathways beyond productivity. Moreover, farmers’ happiness is more directly influenced by recent productivity than by past agricultural performance. However, past shocks continue to have a significant and lingering effect on their happiness. These findings highlight the need for policymakers to mitigate the impact of shocks on well-being not only by improving rice productivity but also by addressing other factors that influence farmers’ happiness. The findings of this dissertation contribute to the literature on the development of Myanmar’s rice sector. Firstly, providing the first empirical evidence of the gender gap in productivity can help inform targeted policy interventions to increase rice productivity while addressing the specific needs of men and women in rice production. Secondly, it provides scalable insights to promote the competitiveness, sustainability, and efficiency of rice production, which not only benefits Myanmar but also contributes to the broader global rice market. Finally, given the importance of understanding the relationship between shocks and well-being through rice productivity, this insight provides valuable guidance for designing interventions to strengthen productivity and improve well-being in vulnerable agrarian communities facing climate-related shocks. All these chapters contribute to the understanding of seasonality, which is vital for highlighting the importance of seasonal production dynamics in Myanmar’s rice sector. Overall, Myanmar’s rice sector can achieve greater sustainability and development by promoting gender equality, enhancing competitiveness, and supporting resilience-building measures for rice-farming communities, ultimately improving farmers’ well-being.
Quantifying pond and labor productivity of small-holder aquaculture farmers in the central dry-zone of Myanmar
(2019) Chertkov, Georgi
To date, aquaculture in developing countries is still largely based on unimproved fish species. As a result, indigenous fish species often show poor growth rate, high fish mortality, and may have high labor production costs. By introducing Genetic Improvement of Farmed Tilapia (GIFT) in Myanmar, WorldFish aims to increase pond and labor productivity such that smallholder farmers earn more from aquaculture from their scarce land, capital and labor resources. The case study presented below purposely selected fish farmers for a micro-economic and partially technical study on labor and pond productivity in aquaculture. Quantitative and qualitative research methods were used to obtain very detailed data allowing me to estimate pond and labor productivity under existing smallholder farmers conditions in Myanmar. The research region was the Central Dry Zone of Myanmar, an area close to those hatcheries which have been identified by World Fish and national research partners. The case study assesses the current productivity and income from pond aquaculture derived by smallholders and provides crucial baseline information for the planned study during 2020/21 to assess the food security, productivity, and income effects of introducing improved tilapia to these smallholder farmers. Information collected during the study regarding problems faced by smallholder aquaculture farmers in the Central Dry Zone will be useful to ensure better delivery of future projects and objectives. Investment scenarios included in the case study aim to provide a demonstration of how future changes to the practices of smallholder aquaculture farmers could impact their profitability. A more productive smallholder aquaculture sector in Myanmar could help to reduce the availability and prices for fish which is a major source of protein and micronutrients for the people of Myanmar.
Socio-economic analysis of aquaculture groups in Hta Naung Wun Village and Shwe Baw Kyun Village in Shwebo Township, Myanmar
(2019) Casagua Diaz, Lizeth Tatiana
Myanmar is one of the largest fish producers in the world. In 2016, the country ranked eighth among the largest global inland aquaculture producers. Ninety percent of inland aquaculture in Myanmar is geographically concentrated in the Ayeyarwady Delta region, in lower Myanmar. Previous studies have indicated that aquaculture in Myanmar has the potential to grow with the improvement in production conditions, access to credit and post-harvest technologies. Given the promising conditions, intervention projects to develop aquaculture in the country such as Myanmar Sustainable Aquaculture Programme (MYSAP) are currently implemented. The Myanmar Sustainable Aquaculture Programme (MYSAP) is funded by the European Union (EU) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and is implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and the Department of Fisheries. WorldFish Myanmar is realising MYSAP’s inland component under a GIZ grant agreement, with Ar Yone Oo, BRAC Myanmar and Malteser International as sub-contracted implementing partners. In order to reduce the deficit of information about aquaculture in regions different to the national cluster, the current study provides a general view of the current market dynamics faced by fish farmers in Shwebo township, Sagaing Region, as a contribution for the knowledge about aquaculture in Myanmar in regions where it has not been widely documented. To do so, this study implemented a qualitative explorative approach using content analysis based on grounded theory for the culture season 2018-2019. A total of 26 fish farmers and 5 key informants were interviewed in Hta Naung Wun and Shwe Baw Kyun villages, using structured questionnaires. Regarding the proportion of the fish harvested used for family consumption, this study found a difference of 5.2 percentual point on the quantity of fish used between the two villages. This study identified that processing companies bought 94.32% of the total fish traded in the study area during the last culture season. The main characteristic influencing the purchases made by the processor is the fish size, with a preference for fish at market size. This study found a gap between fish supply and demand, showing that 80% of the fish supplied do not correspond with the attributes demanded. Fish farmers reported production challenges that potentially limit the aim to produce fish at market size. The challenges reported in the surveys show limitations in access to fish feed and water supply. Exploring farmer-based perceptions regarding the importance of the role of MYSAP programme to the access, this study found that fish farmers gave the highest importance scores to the access to fingerlings and training, and the lowest scores to the access to fish feed and buyers. This study suggests encouraging collective actions among fish farmers in order to implement bulk purchasing, share used of equipment, improve the flow of information and coordinate harvest times, which might benefit fish farmers in the study area. In addition, to overcome the current challenges is important to coordinate with the local government.