Promoting Agriculture Development for Social Stability in Myanmar

Myanmar is set to make a dramatic economic transition if current reforms take hold and the Government of the Union of Myanmar (GOUM) undertakes additional economic reforms. This will translate into dramatic changes for Myanmar s currently underperforming agriculture sector. While this transition will lead to greater agricultural output, employment, and enhanced food security, not all areas of Myanmar will reap these benefits unless the GOUM pursues balanced policies designed to mitigate the potential negative impacts on smallhold farmers in the country s remote ethnic regions. Failure to do so could result in increased food insecurity and ethnic tensions between these underserved ethnic states and the GOUM contributing to a general overall decrease in social stability. As a compliment to pursuing its agro-industrialization policy for key cash crops, the GOUM should focus on assisting smallhold farmers with increasing their output of high-value crops in the remote hilly areas of Rakhine, Chin, Kachin, and Shan states. The USG and the international donor community can assist the GOUM through targeting its development assistance accordingly and advocating for the GOUM to do the same. A possible initiative could be to employ a Public Private Partnership (P3) for Vertical Coordination (VC) in these remote regions. The original document contains color images.