Shifting from traditional farming to integrated, value-added agro-industries is key to boosting rural incomes, cutting food costs, and driving national productivity.
President of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar U Min Aung Hlaing attended and delivered a comprehensive keynote address at the opening ceremony of the national-level workshop titled “From Agricultural Development to National Productivity Growth”, held at the Myanmar International Convention Centre I (MICC I) in Nay Pyi Taw yesterday morning.
Before delivering his address, the President formally inaugurated the national workshop by pressing a digital control switch.
In his keynote speech, the President highlighted that approximately 70 per cent of the country’s population resides in rural areas, with over 50 per cent of the national workforce engaged directly in agriculture, livestock breeding, and forestry sectors. With around 30 per cent of the population currently assessed to be living in poverty, improving rural household incomes remains an urgent national priority. He stressed that transitioning from traditional, subsistence farming to systematic, modernized production methods that yield high-value agro-products is the most effective vehicle for raising family incomes and uplifting rural livelihoods.
Explaining the conceptual foundation of the workshop’s theme, the President noted that the objective is not confined to developing the primary agricultural sector in isolation. Rather, it represents a strategic policy blueprint designed to construct an unbroken value chain extending from agricultural harvests to raw inputs, intermediate processing, finished industrial commodities, domestic distribution, and international export markets. He observed that contemporary global economic development cannot succeed through segregated sectoral policies.
Sustainable prosperity demands strong structural links that connect agriculture, manufacturing, services, financial systems, technology, and market distribution networks to multiply output value.
Consequently, the core question confronting the workshop is not merely how to expand crop volume, but how to elevate product value and systematically convert agricultural yields into high-yielding national productive assets. Agriculture serves as the cornerstone of Myanmar’s food security, socioeconomic stability, and broader national development. It supplies daily subsistence while feeding essential raw materials to industrial enterprises. Addressing this sector requires an integrated sequence: production, raw supplies, processing, value addition, industrial manufacturing, domestic consumption, and export. Strengthening this entire value chain will expand farm incomes, generate employment, invigorate domestic industry, enhance export earnings, and ultimately expand Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Focusing on geopolitical and spatial dynamics, the President explained that Myanmar occupies an exceptionally strategic position within SouthEast Asia, situated directly between the world’s two most populous nations – India to the west with over 1.43 billion people and China to the east with over 1.41 billion people, alongside Bangladesh with roughly 173 million residents. Moreover, Myanmar sits squarely within the Valeriepieris Circle, a geographic zone encompassing roughly half the global population. This presents an immense regional market for Myanmar’s agricultural and livestock exports. When coupled with rich arable land, diverse climatic zones, extended coastlines, and abundant natural resources, the country possesses extraordinary structural endowments.
However, the President cautioned that geographic and environmental advantages do not translate automatically into economic wealth. These assets deliver tangible gains only when converted into higher productivity, superior quality standards, advanced processing technology, and international cost competitiveness.
Turning to domestic challenges, the President identified soaring prices of basic consumer foods as a pressing burden on public living standards. Price escalation is primarily driven by supply and demand mismatches alongside high production, transport, and logistics overheads. To alleviate these pressures, the country must markedly scale up agricultural and livestock output, ensuring ample domestic supplies that bring retail food prices down to affordable levels.
Citing Vietnam as a benchmark, the President noted that despite possessing only half of Myanmar’s landmass and having double its population – with two-thirds of its terrain covered by mountainous regions – Vietnam successfully exports over eight million tonnes of rice valued at more than US$4 billion, over one million tonnes of coffee worth US$8 billion, and more than 240,000 tonnes of pepper valued at US$1 billion annually. By comparison, Myanmar earned US$4.741 billion from agricultural exports in the 2024-2025 financial year and US$3.743 billion in 2025-2026.
Analytical projections demonstrate that if domestic farmers meet designated per-acre target yields, national output could gain US$4 billion; increasing nationwide cropping intensity could deliver an additional US$12 billion. Thus, moving from outdated methods to modern, sustainable farming is the decisive first step toward national economic expansion and poverty alleviation.
The President stressed that agricultural policy must balance commercial profit with long-term national food security. With the global population standing near eight billion and anticipated to reach 10 billion by 2050, international food demand will expand sharply amid regional conflicts, climate shifts, and supply-chain interruptions. Myanmar must secure domestic sufficiency while re-establishing itself as an essential regional and global food supplier – a true “rice granary of the world”.
Regarding the rice sector, he called for comprehensive improvements spanning milling, sorting, storage, branding, and export logistics to realize the vision of a renewed golden age for Myanmar Pawsan rice. In competitive export markets, domestic enterprises must adhere to clear commercial principles: offering superior quality at equal pricing, or lower pricing for matching quality, while prioritizing high-volume turnover over excessive profit margins.
Addressing the national cooking oil shortfall, the President cited findings from a November 2021 study by the Food and Fertilizer Technology Centre for the Asian and Pacific Region (FFTC-AP) covering 220 households in Nay Pyi Taw. The survey revealed that families spent 63 per cent of monthly income on food, with rice (17.75 per cent) and cooking oil (13.16 per cent) representing the two largest household expenses. Because domestic sesame, groundnut, and sunflower oils remain costlier than consumer purchasing power allows, working-class households rely heavily on imported palm oil. Consequently, the State must spend substantial foreign currency importing between 550,000 and 650,000 tonnes of palm oil annually, even though theoretical national production of oilseed crops exceeds one million tonnes. To correct this imbalance, the President called for lower domestic production costs, systematic yield expansion, progressive reductions in palm oil imports, and the commercial adoption of modern rice bran oil extraction technologies using milling by-products.
In his supplementary remarks, the President reviewed the 2025-2026 financial year data, noting that paddy was sown and harvested on 17.4 million acres, producing an average yield of roughly 85 baskets per acre. Achieving established target yields would generate an extra US$3 billion in value, while double-cropping could yield US$15 billion. Expanding target yields across the State’s nine priority crops would further capture US$6.5 billion in lost export revenues.
Furthermore, with 30 per cent of the national population – around 15 million citizens – residing in urban centres, meeting basic daily nutritional needs requires substantial livestock expansion. A consumption rate of one egg per urban resident daily requires a national flock of 20 million laying hens, while meeting modest daily poultry and pork consumption targets demands 800,000 broiler chickens and nearly 16,000 pigs every day.
To develop rural economies, the President advocated for the “One Region- One Product” (OROP) initiative, alongside zero-waste agro-processing across sectors such as cotton, bamboo, and sugarcane. Cotton should be processed locally into yarn and apparel rather than exported as raw fibre; bamboo should be manufactured into consumer items, charcoal, and furniture; and sugarcane waste and molasses should be transformed into organic fertilizers and distillates. Integrating apiculture with sunflower and sesame farming would likewise boost pollination and generate extra farm income.
To finance modern agricultural transformation, the President urged commercial banks to design tailored credit instruments matched to agricultural production and revenue cycles. Emphasizing effective implementation, he concluded by urging delegates from both the public and private sectors to formulate actionable, time-bound strategies through Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) rather than remaining confined to theoretical papers.
Following the opening session, Union Minister for Finance and Revenue Dr Kan Zaw presented a commemorative gift to the President. The President and attendees subsequently viewed commemorative exhibition booths displaying agricultural innovations and production models, during which the President provided necessary operational guidance.
The opening ceremony was attended by Vice-Presidents U Nyo Saw and Nan Ni Ni Aye, Pyithu Hluttaw Speaker U Khin Yi, Amyotha Hluttaw Speaker U Aung Lin Dwe, Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services General Ye Win Oo, Union Ministers and Union-level dignitaries, the chairman of the Nay Pyi Taw Council, chief ministers of Regions and States, senior military officers from the Office of the Commander-in-Chief, chairpersons and secretaries of Hluttaw standing committees, the Commander of Nay Pyi Taw Command, deputy ministers, heads of departments, the President and executives of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI), subject-matter experts and scholars, and invitees. — MNA/ST
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