Myanmar’s misguided policies contributed to shortages
Posted on May 9th, 2008Greenwire: The consequences of Myanmar’s often bizarre agricultural policies are becoming more evident in the wake of the devastating cyclone that hit the country last weekend.
U.N. World Food Programme officials say the storm wiped out much of Myanmar’s midyear harvest and stockpiles are dwindling, meaning plans to export rice to other needy nations such as Bangladesh will likely be scrapped.
“We can’t blame [Myanmar] for being hit by a cyclone, but we can point to their policies for making a longer-term recovery much harder,” a senior Western diplomat in Yangon said.
Such policies by the military rulers — including ordering rice fields bulldozed to make way for inedible biodiesel crops, encouraging soldiers to pay themselves by seizing rice from farmers and providing rice strains that can only be grown with expensive fertilizers — have left the country full of fertile rice paddies short on food and have badly eroded the country’s food-security cushion.
Perhaps the most vexing move was the decision to plant jatropha, an inedible biodiesel crop, on otherwise fertile farmland.
“This was the whitest of the junta’s white elephants,” said Monique Skidmore, a professor at the Australian National University and an author of two books on Myanmar. “It goes to show how [the generals] have no concept of how to properly run the country, especially in the aftermath of this cyclone” (James Hookway, Wall Street Journal [subscription required], May 9). – PR