Farmhands Scarce as People Leave Arakan

Kyauk Taw: Laborers are becoming hard to find for paddy farmers in western Burma's Arakan State, as so many have been leaving their homeland due to the economic crisis to try and find opportunities overseas.

"Due to the economic crisis in our state, many young and middle-aged people have left for Thailand, Malaysia, and other places in Burma as far as Shwemaw in Kachin State, and now it is very difficult for us to find a laborer for our paddy farming," said a farmer from Kyauktaw Township.


The farmer said they have found no farmhands to work their fields, even after offering hefty payments.

"Now the season is coming near and yet we have not found a single farmhand, even after offering 80,000 to 100,000 kyat just for working 20 days until farming out the paddy fields. We are also unable to buy a tractor and have no idea how to start our farming this year," he added.

The scarcity of farmhands is a problem facing not only the farmers in Kyauktaw Township, as farmers in other nearby townships such as Mrauk U, Minbya, Ponna Kyunt, Pauktaw, and Rathidaung are facing the same shortage of labor.

Sources said the crisis in their areas this year is worse than last year. A woman from Rathidaung Township said there are some villages with almost no males, as most of the men of working age in those villages have gone to Malaysia to work and earn for their families.

"There are villages in our township where women have to carry the dead bodies to the cemetery for funerals because there are not enough men in the villages," she said.

A resident from Minbya Township also said that many villagers there have left to work on palm oil plantations in Tananthari Division recently.

According to local residents, illegal taxation, stringent oppression, forcible land confiscation, and the monopolization of business by successive Burmese military authorities has resulted in a crisis in Arakan State, and many Arakanese have been leaving their homeland to find opportunities to survive elsewhere.

Sources said they have not seen any changes and the atrocities in their state by authorities are still continuing as usual, despite claims of democratic reform in Burma by the new U Thein Sein government.

Source:http://www.narinjara.com/details.asp?id=2968