Conflict and agricultural performance: Evidence from Myanmar
Conflict and agricultural performance: Evidence from Myanmar

Author: Win, Myat Thida

Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst

Published: 2024-05-28

Total Pages: 36

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Recent years have witnessed an escalation in conflict, especially in developing countries where a significant proportion of the population relies on agriculture. It is crucial to understand how these conflicts impact agricultural production, given its importance for food security and agricultural transformation in these regions. However, research exploring how persistent conflicts affect agriculture is still nascent. Our study adds to this body of research by establishing a causal link between ongoing conflicts and their impact on paddy production, a primary staple crop in Myanmar. This analysis is based on data from a nationally representative phone survey conducted amidst active conflicts. We find that conflict adversely affects paddy production in various ways, including decreases in production and yield, as well as decreases in farmgate prices and the value of production. Our analysis reveals that conflict events, particularly those targeting civilians, have more pronounced negative effects on paddy production, yield, farmgate prices, and the value of production compared to non-targeted conflict incidents that do not purposively target civilians but could potentially disrupt input and output markets. The timing of conflict also significantly affects paddy production, with incidents occurring in mid-season, and during pre-planting and planting periods being the most damaging. Conflict leads to a decrease in the land area devoted to paddy cultivation, lowered probability and intensity of compound fertilizer usage, and an increased reliance on possibly lower quality seeds and exchange labor use. Our findings provide timely and informative insights for development partners and policy frameworks, highlighting the need for emergency assistance and intervention strategies to mitigate the impact of conflict and enhance resilience in areas vulnerable to conflict and instability.

Conflict and agricultural productivity: Evidence from Myanmar
Conflict and agricultural productivity: Evidence from Myanmar

Author: Myanmar Agriculture Policy Support Activity

Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst

Published: 2023-02-21

Total Pages: 36

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Evidence is scarce on how conflict affects technology adoption and consequent agricultural productivity in fragile states, an important topic given the high share of the extreme poor living in fragile environments globally. Our study contributes to filling this knowledge gap by using unique large-scale data on rice producers in Myanmar before and after a military coup in 2021, leading to a surge of conflicts in the country. We find that the increase in violent events significantly changed rice productivity. Specifically, increases in fatal violent events between 2020 and 2021 reduced rice Total Factor Productivity (TFP) – a measure of how efficiently agricultural inputs are used to produce rice – by about 4 percent on average in the short-run. Moreover, poorer farmers are more affected by conflict, as seen through an increased output elasticity to agricultural equipment owned, indicating reduced output resilience for less-capital owning, and therefore poorer, farmers. This seems partly due to reduced access to agricultural extension services, which would otherwise help farmers maintain productivity, even with limited capital ownership, through substitution with human capital and skills. Lower mechanization service fees partly mitigate these effects. Our results consistently hold for both short- and long-run production functions, across various specifications, and in Upper and Lower Myanmar. These findings suggest that containing and reducing violent events is critical in restoring rice productivity. Improved access to extension services, as well as to cheap mechanization service provision to mitigate lack of equipment ownership, could compensate for these losses and boost the productivity of farmers, especially for those with less production capital, in such fragile settings.

Urban proximity, conflict, and agricultural development: Evidence from Myanmar
Urban proximity, conflict, and agricultural development: Evidence from Myanmar

Author: Steinhübel, Linda

Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst

Published: 2023-07-27

Total Pages: 40

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Urbanization and violent conflict have been two global trends gaining more and more momentum in recent years. This has important implications for agricultural development, which unfortunately are still not well understood. Urban proximity is generally associated with agricultural intensification and improved market participation, while farming systems in remote areas are characterized by larger shares of subsistence production. Such differences along the remoteness gradient likely also play a role in how conflict exposure affects agricultural production. That is, we must assume that the effect of conflict on agricultural development is location-dependent—a fact that is generally neglected in empirical analysis. We address this gap by drawing from a unique nationally representative data set of 2,292 paddy farmers in Myanmar and estimating the effect of conflict exposure and travel times on agricultural production during the monsoon season of 2021. By applying multivariate additive models, we allow for nonlinear and interacted effects of conflict exposure and urban proximity, thereby explicitly exploring spatial variation in the effect of conflict exposure. We find strong positive effects of urban proximity on paddy rice intensification and sales, while conflict exposure has disproportionately negative effects in direct proximity to urban centers and very remote areas. For agricultural development—and smallholder incomes in general—this means that productive areas, on the one hand, and the poorest areas of the country, on the other hand, are especially affected by conflict.

An evolving paradigm of agricultural mechanization development: How much can Africa learn from Asia?
An evolving paradigm of agricultural mechanization development: How much can Africa learn from Asia?

Author: Diao, Xinshen, ed.

Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst

Published: 2020-12-07

Total Pages: 548

ISBN-13: 0896293807

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Agricultural mechanization in Africa south of the Sahara — especially for small farms and businesses — requires a new paradigm to meet the needs of the continent’s evolving farming systems. Can Asia, with its recent success in adopting mechanization, offer a model for Africa? An Evolving Paradigm of Agricultural Mechanization Development analyzes the experiences of eight Asian and five African countries. The authors explore crucial government roles in boosting and supporting mechanization, from import policies to promotion policies to public good policies. Potential approaches presented to facilitating mechanization in Africa include prioritizing market-led hiring services, eliminating distortions, and developing appropriate technologies for the African context. The role of agricultural mechanization within overall agricultural and rural transformation strategies in Africa is also discussed. The book’s recommendations and insights should be useful to national policymakers and the development community, who can adapt this knowledge to local contexts and use it as a foundation for further research.

Global Trends 2040
Global Trends 2040

Author: National Intelligence Council

Publisher: Cosimo Reports

Published: 2021-03

Total Pages: 158

ISBN-13: 9781646794973

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic marks the most significant, singular global disruption since World War II, with health, economic, political, and security implications that will ripple for years to come." -Global Trends 2040 (2021) Global Trends 2040-A More Contested World (2021), released by the US National Intelligence Council, is the latest report in its series of reports starting in 1997 about megatrends and the world's future. This report, strongly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, paints a bleak picture of the future and describes a contested, fragmented and turbulent world. It specifically discusses the four main trends that will shape tomorrow's world: - Demographics-by 2040, 1.4 billion people will be added mostly in Africa and South Asia. - Economics-increased government debt and concentrated economic power will escalate problems for the poor and middleclass. - Climate-a hotter world will increase water, food, and health insecurity. - Technology-the emergence of new technologies could both solve and cause problems for human life. Students of trends, policymakers, entrepreneurs, academics, journalists and anyone eager for a glimpse into the next decades, will find this report, with colored graphs, essential reading.

Economic Development of Myanmar
Economic Development of Myanmar

Author: Myat Thein

Publisher: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 9812302115

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

There are a number of excellent studies by eminent Myanmar economists as well as scholars from abroad covering different post-war periods and/or various aspects of development in Myanmar. What this book does is to bring them altogether, as it were, under one roof by recasting bits and pieces of their work according to the author’s own understanding. In doing so, a holistic approach was adopted in order to have a well-rounded account of developments over the past fifty years or more. In addition, an attempt has also been made to present the major developments at different periods of time between 1948 and 2000 in a simple, but not over simplified, reader-friendly format so as to reach as wide an audience as possible. It is the author’s ardent wish that not only students and policy-makers, but Myanmar people in all walks of life will read the book, discuss it, and work together for a better future.

Livelihoods, poverty, and food insecurity in Myanmar: Survey evidence from June 2020 to December 2021
Livelihoods, poverty, and food insecurity in Myanmar: Survey evidence from June 2020 to December 2021

Author: Myanmar Agriculture Policy Support Activity (MAPSA)

Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst

Published: 2022-02-02

Total Pages: 15

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Ten rounds of the Rural-Urban Food Security Survey (RUFSS) have been conducted between June 2020 and December 2021 to assess the impacts of Myanmar’s economic, political, and health crises on various dimensions of household welfare. RUFSS interviews about 2000 mothers of young children per round from urban Yangon, the rural Dry Zone, and recent migrants from these areas.

Shock Waves
Shock Waves

Author: Stephane Hallegatte

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 2015-11-23

Total Pages: 227

ISBN-13: 1464806748

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Ending poverty and stabilizing climate change will be two unprecedented global achievements and two major steps toward sustainable development. But the two objectives cannot be considered in isolation: they need to be jointly tackled through an integrated strategy. This report brings together those two objectives and explores how they can more easily be achieved if considered together. It examines the potential impact of climate change and climate policies on poverty reduction. It also provides guidance on how to create a “win-win†? situation so that climate change policies contribute to poverty reduction and poverty-reduction policies contribute to climate change mitigation and resilience building. The key finding of the report is that climate change represents a significant obstacle to the sustained eradication of poverty, but future impacts on poverty are determined by policy choices: rapid, inclusive, and climate-informed development can prevent most short-term impacts whereas immediate pro-poor, emissions-reduction policies can drastically limit long-term ones.

The State of Food and Agriculture 2021
The State of Food and Agriculture 2021

Author: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Publisher: Food & Agriculture Org.

Published: 2021-11-23

Total Pages: 182

ISBN-13: 9251343292

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the vulnerability of agrifood systems to shocks and stresses and led to increased global food insecurity and malnutrition. Action is needed to make agrifood systems more resilient, efficient, sustainable and inclusive. The State of Food and Agriculture 2021 presents country-level indicators of the resilience of agrifood systems. The indicators measure the robustness of primary production and food availability, as well as physical and economic access to food. They can thus help assess the capacity of national agrifood systems to absorb shocks and stresses, a key aspect of resilience. The report analyses the vulnerabilities of food supply chains and how rural households cope with risks and shocks. It discusses options to minimize trade-offs that building resilience may have with efficiency and inclusivity. The aim is to offer guidance on policies to enhance food supply chain resilience, support livelihoods in the agrifood system and, in the face of disruption, ensure sustainable access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to all.

Myanmar
Myanmar

Author: Asian Development Bank

Publisher: Asian Development Bank

Published: 2014-08-01

Total Pages: 405

ISBN-13: 9292546236

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

After 3 years of historic reforms, Myanmar has entered a pivotal stage in its socioeconomic development. Natural, cultural, and demographic advantages are positioning the country for long-term success, but many challenges and potential pitfalls lie ahead. This publication examines how to leverage the opportunities and offers solutions to the challenges. For Myanmar to achieve its economic transition, considerable investments will have to be made in infrastructure and developing human capital, and progress made on building institutional capacity, a regulatory environment for the private sector to flourish, and a modern finance sector. In all reform efforts, the government should embrace good governance, and strive for inclusive, environmentally sustainable, and regionally connected growth. Ensuring that the benefits of growth are shared broadly and regionally balanced stands out in a crowded development agenda.