| Flood-Affected Farmers in Myanmar | ||||||||||||||
| By Zhang Li-yun, Huang Hsiu-hua, and Ong Gaik Chin Compiled and Translated by Wu Hsiao-ting Photos by Hsiao Yiu-hwa | ||||||||||||||
Severe flooding as a result of a particularly heavy monsoon season hit Myanmar in July and August 2018, leading to enormous agricultural losses. Tzu Chi first distributed mung bean seeds to affected farmers, followed later by rice seeds, to help them through the difficult times.
It was like a dream when we first heard that Tzu Chi was going to distribute top-quality rice seeds to us,” said U Soe Lwin Myint, of Kyauk Ta Khar, Bago Region, Myanmar. His eight-acre farm had been submerged in floodwater last summer. With his crops ruined, he had no money to pay back the debt he had incurred to buy the rice seeds for last year’s planting. Though he was under a huge financial strain, he was dubious when he heard that Tzu Chi was coming to help them. “Many charity groups have promised to donate rice seeds, but none have come through,” he said. He soon learned that Tzu Chi’s promises to help them were not just empty words. The foundation first extended aid to Myanmar in 2008 after Cyclone Nargis ravaged the nation, causing cataclysmic destruction and taking more than 138,000 lives. Since then, Tzu Chi has rendered aid to needy farmers in the nation time and again.
Economic gap between city and countryside Myanmar, with a population of 50 million people, has opened considerably to foreign investment since the country’s democratization in 2011. China, Japan, and Korea are among the major investors. As the Myanmar government actively moves toward economic development and growth, the nation has seen a big jump in per capita income—from 700 U.S. dollars in 2011 to over 1,200 U.S. dollars in 2017—making Myanmar one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Yangon, the commercial capital of Myanmar, has been the first to taste the fruits of the nation’s economic growth. One tall building after another has risen in the city and neon lights shine brightly at night—icons of development and modernity. The improvement in the nation’s economy, however, hasn’t had much of an impact in rural areas of the country. The gap between the living standards in the city and country is most noticeably manifested in the poor infrastructure in rural villages. Some villages do not even have running water or electricity. U Kyaw Nyunt is a village head from Waw Township, Bago Region, and a representative of a farmers’ organization. He said, “The economy has indeed improved, but the growth hasn’t touched us farmers. We don’t feel the effects of the government’s new development projects, either. As farmers, we only know how to grow crops. If you send us to work in Yangon, we won’t fit in.” When floods hit, farmers are bound to suffer, their lives made harder by the loss of their crops. Sadly, monsoons have long caused floods in Myanmar. In July and August 2018, the nation was hit again by flooding. The affected areas were huge. The village U Kyaw Nyunt lives in was flooded too. In response, the government gave each affected family 100,000 kyat (US$66) to help them through this hard time. In September 2018, Tzu Chi volunteers from Taiwan and Malaysia visited Myanmar and joined local volunteers to assess the damage. They learned that most local farmers had had to borrow money to plant their crops and were expecting to repay the loan after the harvest had come in. However, the floods had dashed their plans. These events were especially hard on farmers who didn’t own their own land. They were unqualified to apply for low-interest loans from the government, so they had to borrow from private lenders at higher interest rates. After the floods ruined their crops, not only did they lack the money to repay their loans, but some even had to borrow rice to keep themselves fed. Rice farmers with no rice to eat—what an irony. After learning about the situation, Master Cheng Yen instructed Tzu Chi volunteers to first distribute mung bean seeds to help farmers through the dry season. November through February in Myanmar is the dry season, during which many farmers plant beans, which are drought-resistant. Since it was too late after the floods to plant new crops of rice, volunteers distributed mung bean seeds for farmers to plant. The distributions were carried out in October and November 2018 in five towns in Yangon Region and Bago Region, benefiting 15,000 families. Taiwanese Tzu Chi volunteer Huang Qiu-liang (黃秋良) said, “After the farmers harvest the mung beans, they can go on to plant rice. The Master instructed us to follow up our distributions of mung bean seeds with distributions of rice seeds to further ease local farmers’ financial burdens.” June through October is the rainy season in Myanmar. Farmers usually plant rice, the cultivation of which requires ample water, at the end of May or the beginning of June so that they can get the benefit of the rainfall. If all goes well, they can expect to harvest in late October or early November.
Bumper crops When volunteers tried to purchase rice seeds for the distributions, however, things didn’t go smoothly. Though four rice seed suppliers had agreed to work with Tzu Chi, two dropped out because of fluctuations in the currency exchange rate. One smaller supplier also backed out because it didn’t take U.S. dollars. “Fortunately, the single remaining company agreed to find other suppliers for Tzu Chi and brought the matter to a satisfactory conclusion,” said Huang. After the problems with purchasing were solved, Tzu Chi next needed to inspect the quality of the rice seeds. For this, the foundation asked the help of Hong Zai-sheng (洪再生), who grows 120 acres of rice in northern Taiwan and who once grew rice in Myanmar. His experience in this was invaluable to Tzu Chi. Hong paid for his trip to Myanmar out of his own pocket and very generously helped the foundation determine whether the purchase price was fair and whether the quality of the rice seeds was up to par. The Myanmar government’s agriculture sector was very supportive of Tzu Chi too. U Aung Moe Lwin, from the government agriculture office in Waw, Bago Region, said, “Tzu Chi has managed to procure a large quantity of good-quality rice seeds. We checked the seeds in the laboratory to keep those that are sure to germinate and to weed out the bad ones. Though we ended up having to get rid of ten barrels out of a hundred, we are willing to cover the losses because we have seen how hard Tzu Chi volunteers have worked to help our farmers.” (One barrel holds about 23.5 kilograms [52 pounds] of rice.) It took a month to prepare 4,200 metric tons (4,630 tons) of rice seeds for distribution. In February 2019, volunteers from Taiwan, Malaysia, and Myanmar worked together to distribute the seeds to farmers in Yangon Region, Bago Region, Mon State, and Kayin State. When local farmers saw the volunteers, they cheerfully announced: “We have had bumper harvests of mung beans this year. There were some heavy rains in January, and we were very worried they would cause a heavy loss to our crops. Happily, the rains were just the right amount. They did a good job of nourishing the beans and helped them grow better.” Volunteers visited the farmers’ fields to see for themselves. They were delighted to see people busily harvesting an abundance of mung beans. Farmer Daw Tin Moe Khine told volunteers that her family hadn’t harvested their mung beans yet, but that they too were expecting a bumper harvest. She smiled as she said, “Now we’ll be able to cover some of the losses we sustained from our lost rice crops.”
Saving seeds For the rice seed distributions, Tzu Chi used the Ragic online database management system to build up data on the 47,000 farming families who were receiving aid from the foundation. However, because some remote villages and towns in Myanmar don’t have running water and electricity, all government paperwork is still processed by hand. After the foundation received the recipient rosters from the agriculture departments in different regions, volunteers had to key in the hand-written information, one entry at a time, into the online system. This involved a lot of work. The huge amount of preparation work was undertaken mostly by Tzu Chi collegiate volunteers in Myanmar. The on-line system simplified the distribution process. When a farmer came to a distribution venue, he or she received a card which displayed a barcode. After a volunteer scanned the barcode with a cell phone, the farmer completed the sign-in process. After that, the farmer could go to the warehouse of the agriculture department in their region to claim their rice seeds at a time that suited them. Because the distribution of rice seeds coincided with the mung bean harvest season, many farmers were busy harvesting in the field when the time came for them to report at a distribution venue. They wanted to harvest their crops as soon as they could to beat the rain and to prevent overripe beans from falling off, which would have decreased yield. Village head U Kyaw Nyunt showed up at a distribution venue holding a pile of distribution notifications. He was helping some farmers who couldn’t come to the site in person to complete their identification-checking and sign-in. “A bag of mung beans can bring in 50,000 kyat [US$33],” said the village head. “If farmers don’t harvest as soon as they can, they will incur big losses.” U Kyaw Nyunt was a victim of last summer’s floods too and had received mung bean seeds from Tzu Chi. “The seeds provided by the foundation had a higher yield than all those I had planted before,” he said. “I used to harvest 50 barrels, but this time I harvested 120 barrels—70 barrels more than before.” With a huge grin on his face, U Kyaw Nyunt mentioned that the government was doing a better job taking care of farmers now and had provided machinery to help them farm. He also said that he and other farmers looked forward to receiving rice seeds from Tzu Chi because they had heard that the seeds were of very good quality. “After I plant and harvest the rice, I’ll save some seeds to use for future planting. With good seeds, better harvests are to be expected, and we’ll stand a better chance of improving our lives.”
Accompanied by some local village heads, volunteers visited some farmers who weren’t on Tzu Chi’s aid recipient rosters to see if they needed help too. U Myo lived in the village of Gwayt Gyin in Waw. There were six members in his household, living on the income from a two-acre farm. Although his two acres were flooded last summer, he didn’t receive any aid from Tzu Chi because he failed to register his losses with the government. After the floods, U Myo took out a loan to buy mung bean seeds to plant. He harvested 14 barrels from that planting, but after he repaid the loan and paid the wages of the workers he hired, his net profit was just 100,000 kyat (US$66). This had to cover his family’s living expenses for the next two months, which, as to be expected, would not be enough. As a result, men from the family had to go to the city to work part-time for extra income, making 7,000 to 8,000 kyat a day. U Myo’s family illustrates a typical farmer’s life in Myanmar. It is a real challenge for farmers there to climb out of poverty. Myanmar consists of seven states and seven regions. Of those, ten were affected by last summer’s floods. The Tzu Chi Foundation chose to deliver aid to the hard-hit Yangon Region, Bago Region, Mon State, and Kayin State. In the space of ten days, from February 16 to 25, 2019, volunteers distributed rice seeds to farmers in over 500 villages.
A good tradition On February 25, volunteers arrived at Hpa An, Kayin State, near the border with Thailand, to distribute rice seeds to over 5,000 families. Some opposition forces were once stationed in Hpa An. After weighing the safety issues, agriculture officials and Tzu Chi volunteers still decided to carry out distributions there. Inside the War Suu Monastery, one of the distribution venues, farmers sat packed on the floor due to limited space. Despite the crowdedness, there wasn’t a trace of displeasure on their faces; they looked at ease and cheerful instead. They listened intently as U Win Naig Oo, an agriculture official, gave a talk: “This isn’t an easy area to travel to, but Tzu Chi volunteers have come anyway. We are fortunate to have their help. They don’t just give help one time; they will continue to extend care to us.” He encouraged the villagers to work hard to help the local region prosper. “You may be receiving help from others today, but one day when you are capable, be sure to reach out to help others.” The indoor space of the monastery could accommodate at most 500 people, so volunteers had set up another distribution area under the trees outside. More farmers sat on the ground there, quietly listening to Burmese Tzu Chi volunteer Soe Tinzar Win introduce the foundation and talk about how farmers in Myanmar had started saving up rice to help the needy after learning about the foundation’s humble beginnings: a small group of housewives each saved a little money in bamboo coin banks every day to do charity work. Farmer U Saw Aung said as he took a rice bank—a container in which to save rice—from a volunteer: “I’ll take this home and save a handful of rice in it every day.” Burmese farmers are known for their kind hearts and mild disposition. Many are in the habit of saving money and rice to give to Buddhist monks. Tzu Chi volunteer Guo Min-zi (郭敏姿) is a Taiwanese businesswoman in Myanmar. She said, “People in Myanmar have long had the tradition of saving a handful of rice every day [for altruistic purposes].” U Kyaw Nyunt, the village head, said that Burmese are happy to help and give to others, but most of them give to monks or donate money to build stupas. “But now some villagers, influenced by Tzu Chi,” he continued, “have started to save rice in milk cans and put a thousand kyat in each can to give to families who have had a recent death.” Before the rice seed distributions, volunteers visited villages affected by the floods and promised farmers that they would come back to help. Now they were back as promised, and this obviously moved many villagers. Out of gratitude, many decided to join the rice bank campaign. This is a cycle of goodness that Tzu Chi volunteers are more than happy to see. Volunteers were inspired, warmed, and uplifted by the kind-hearted villagers. In the process of helping them, they felt they had received more than they had given. |
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