Myanmar
A web-based facility for storing and access of sub-national agricultural statistical data files from the country source. National focal points are responsible for maintaining the database.
Agricultural Statistics System of Myanmar
I. Introduction
Myanmar is an agricultural country and agriculture sector is the back bone of its economy, contributes 44% ( 2002-2003 ) of GDP; 34%( 2001-2002) of total export earnings and employs 61.4% (2002-2003 ) of the labor force.
The agriculture sector remains basic in the national economy of Myanmar. 75% of the total population reside in rural areas and are principally engaged in
agriculture, livestock and fishery sector for their livelihood. And the progressive achievements in the agriculture sector covering production, services and trade,
accrue to national development.
II. National Agricultural Statistics System
The statistical system of Myanmar is a decentralized system. Planning and Statistics Department exists in almost all Ministries and statistics are collected and compiled independently by each ministry to serve their own purposes. The Central Statistical Organization collects data in accordance with the 1952 Central Statistical Authority Act No. (34) and plays a key role in the national system of
statistical information.
The major government agencies that produce primary agricultural statistics are :
- Settlements and Land Records Department (SLRD) under Ministry of Agriculture and
Irrigation (MOAI)
- Myanmar Agriculture Service under MOAI
- Forest Department under Ministry of Forestry (MOF)
- Timber Enterprise of Ministry of Forestry
- Fisheries Department under Ministry of Livestock Breeding and Fisheries (MLBF)
- Livestock Breeding and Veterinary Department under MLBF
Each planning department under the three ministries (MOAI, MOF, MLBF) is
responsible to monitor the performance and to formulate the short, medium and
long term plan based on the collected statistics.Department of Agricultural Planning (DAP) under MOAI regularly collects the performance of crop agencies and disseminates the statistical information on the
weekly, monthly and yearly basis. Collected data are also shared to Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development for the purpose of analysis at
national level. Central Statistical Organization also annually disseminates the
agricultural information with the cooperation of SLRD and DAP.
Other government agencies also produce primary agricultural statistics as a result
of routine administrative functions or from holding ad-hoc surveys.
III. Sources of Food and Agricultural Statistics
Central Statistical Organization (CSO)
CSO is the only authoritative organization in Myanmar that has the
mandate to collect, process, organize and supply data for the use of planners,
policy makers and other users in the country as well as international bodies. It
is one of the prime function to provide timely and reliable data to those who
are in needs of statistical information. CSO sometimes collects data by means
of physical observation, personal interview, small enquiry, method of
registration, transcription from official records and conducting surveys. All
organized data in CSO are processed stage by stage before presenting final
results.
CSO conducts various sample surveys to fill the gaps in the existing
statistics to provide users with data, which they require from time to time.
CSO uses proper sampling designs in order to get multipurpose data related to
economic, social and population conditions with limited resources
accompanied by statements on the precision of estimates made on sample observations.
Surveys conducted in recent years as well as in the past by CSO are:
Household Income and Expenditure Survey (1997),
National Mortality Survey
(1997),
Sample Survey on Evaluation of Vital Registration System (1995),
Ground Nut Survey (1978),
Agriculture Survey (1972-73, 1981-82, 1983-84),
Industry Survey (1975-76, 1977-78, 1978-79, 1980-81),
Transportation
Survey (1965-66),
Water Craft Survey (1970-71),
Livestock Survey (1973-74).
Settlement and Land Records Department
The Settlements and Land Records Department (SLRD) is the only government agency with the mandate to collect and disseminate agricultural statistics. SLRD's statistical activities include;
(i) Monitoring the progress of land preparation and cropping; condition of weather and crops,
(ii) Making crop forecasts,
(iii) Carrying out periodic crop surveys,
(iv) Compiling data on farmer and farm size distribution,
(v) Taking annual inventory of agricultural machinery and implements for the whole country, and
(vi) Compiling the annual Season and Crop Report which provides statistics on rainfall; land use; irrigation and flood protection; crop acreage, yield per acre and production; multiple cropping; inventory of agricultural machinery and implements.
SLRD operates through a network of 17 states / divisions and 287 Township
Land Records offices together having a nation-wide coverage. The field staff
at land records offices consists of 6917 surveyors who report to 1946
supervisors who in turn report to the township land records officers.
Myanmar Agriculture Service
Myanmar Agriculture Service under the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation
is responsible to do agricultural research and extension developments. Having
more than 8000 extension agents down to the village level in the whole
country, MAS produces primary statistics on procurement, distribution and
use of agricultural inputs. It also cooperates with SLRD in the collection of
crop statistics.
Forest Department ( Ministry of Forestry)
The Forest department under the Ministry of Forestry produces forest
resources data, statistics on primary forest products and data on forest
revenue. The Timber Enterprise produces statistics on timber extraction, saw
milling, and trade involving forest products, particularly in the public sector.
Fisheries Department
The Fisheries Department has a statistics section. It is responsible for
compiling fisheries statistics for planning, survey of socio-economic
conditions of fishermen, appraisal of fresh water and marine fisheries and
survey of marketing of fish.
Livestock Breeding and Veterinary Department
The Livestock Breeding and Veterinary Department (LBVD) is responsible
for carrying out the annual censuses of livestock since 1978. Formerly SLRD
was responsible for producing data on livestock. LBVD is also responsible for
estimating the annual production of livestock and livestock products.
IV. Statistical Services of SLRD
The Settlement and Land Records Department collects area based statistics and
production statistics primarily through its Crop Forecasts and Crop Survey
Operations.
- Crop Forecasting
Forecasts give data on sown area, matured area, yield per acre and total
production for 14 important crops. These crops are: (1) Monsoon Rice, (2) Summer Rice (3) Monsoon Groundnut, (4) Winter Groundnut, (5) Early-monsoon Sesame, (6) Late-monsoon and winter Sesame. (7) Summer Sesame (8) Wagyi
Cotton, (9) Mahlaing 5/6 Cotton, (10) Long Staple Cotton, (11) Jute, (12)
Sugarcane, (13) Wheat, and (14) Rubber.
Usually three forecasts are made for each crop. The First Forecast is scheduled
to coincide with the usual seeding time and the Last Forecast with the usual
harvesting time of the particular crop. The figures for the forecasts are generated
by surveyors visiting the field for about a week each time assessing the extent of
area cropped, condition of standing crops and interviewing key farmers and other
knowledgeable persons. Planned production target for the year, prevailing weather conditions, crop prices, labour availability, sufficiency of draught power and implement, agricultural financing and input situation, land disputes, allocation of land by government, performance in last five years as reflecting the recent trends, are taken into account in preparing and editing the forecasts.
- Crop Surveys
Crop Surveys are carried out to produce reliable data on crop acreage and
production. The manner in which they are executed permits also the compilation
of data on land use, cropping pattern, irrigation and flood-protection, and farm
size distribution among others. The crop surveys are meant to cover all crops
grown in an agricultural year; therefore three crop surveys, each of which is timed
to coincide with the major growing seasons, are carried out annually.
The Monsoon Crop Survey covers all the pre-monsoon and early-monsoon
crop. Major crops are cotton, Jute, oilseeds, maize, and sugarcane. The Rice
Survey covers rice as well as other major crops. The Winter-crop Survey covers
post-monsoon crops such as oilseeds, wheat, pulses, tobacco, food crop and
(winter-rice).
The basic material for crop survey is the '' Kwin'' map or cadastral map which
covers an area of about one square mile at a scale of 1:3960 and statistical
registers. A surveyor has a fixed beat of two or three village-tracts containing
about 8-12 kwins with a total area of about 4000 to 6000 acres. At the scheduled time for a crop survey the surveyors visit kwins and record
crop information on to the maps by each field using prescribed symbols.
- Crop Cutting Surveys
Yield per acre of crops is estimated through a combination of farmers'
estimate, surveyors' visual assessment and in the case of specified crops, sample crop cuttings. Rice, sesame, groundnut and jute are specified for crop cutting. Regular size of a crop cutting plot is 6.6ftx6.6 ft. For rice crop, biometric
variables such as plant population per acre, total number of tillers per hill, panicle
bearing tillers per hill, average number of grains per panicle, average percentage
of ripened grains and weight of 1000 matured grains are measured. Alternative
estimates of yield per acre are made and used for cross-checking. A non-probability, quota type of sampling is used for electing sample plots and sample
farmers for interview. Three sample plots per 100 acres of each major variety of
rice is selected in a kwin and the average yield per acre for a given variety by
kwin is estimated. Total production is estimated at the kwin level by multiplying
the harvested area of rice by the estimated yield per acre.
V. Census of Agriculture
Myanmar participated in the 1950 programme of World Census of
Agriculture but the coverage was limited to over 2000 village tracts in the
neighborhood of 252 towns.
The 1993 Census of Agriculture was carried out by SLRD with financial
and technical assistance from UNDP / FAO. Support services in terms of
equipment and human resources are provided by Myanmar. It covered 272
townships out of a total of 319 in the 7 states and 7 divisions of Myanmar.
Sampling method was used for the first time in 1993 Census of Agriculture.
Based on the experiences of 1993 Census of Agriculture, SLRD conducted a
series of small scale surveys on agricultural social and economic conditions in
185 townships. The primary aim for conducting the agricultural social economic
surveys is to study the living standard of farm households. In 1996, Human
Development Initiative Baseline Survey was carried out by SLRD with technical
assistance from Macro International, Inc, USA under a contract from UNDP. The HDI Baseline Survey covered 23 townships in eight states / divisions in Myanmar.
It produced social, economic and health indicators for 23 townships. Settlement office, a branch of SLRD also conducts cost of cultivation surveys on rice,
groundnut, green gram, black gram, jute and sesame. SLRD is now carrying out data processing works for the conducted Myanmar
Census of Agriculture 2003. FAO assisted with the TCP project of
TCP/MYA/2801(A) for the preparatory works for the Myanmar Census of
Agriculture 2003.
Proceedings on the National Seminar on the System Food and Agriculture Statistics in Myanmar, 29-30 January 2000
A national seminar on food and agriculture statistics was organized jointly by the Settlement and Land Records Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation of Myanmar and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The seminar, held on 29-30 January 2001 at the International Business Centre in Yangon, was a follow-up activity of the Japan-FAO cooperative project for the improvement of agricultural statistics in Asia-Pacific countries. Representatives from various government departments, the private sector and UN agencies took part in the seminar.
Executive Summary, Speeches and List of Participants [PDF format, 124 kb]
Resource Papers [PDF format, 446 kb]
Contact address of Food and Agricultural Statistics in Myanmar
Settlement and Land Records Department
Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation
Thiri Mingalar Lan,
P.O. off Kaba aye Pagoda Road
Yangon
Tel.: (95-1) 665681
Fax: (95-1) 664899
Email: slrddg-hq@mptmail.net.mn
dydg-hq@slrd-moai.gov.mn
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