Esteemed national peoples,
Firstly, I’d like to disperse the compassion on today’s auspicious day to mark World Food Day to all the esteemed people residing in Myanmar to enjoy the fruits of mental and physical well-being.
As food sufficiency and nutrition is essential for the daily life of human beings, it is necessary to place a special emphasis on the World Food Day organized by global countries for all.
Currently, 40 per cent of the global population (some three billion) does not get healthy foods whereas 10 per cent of the global people are suffering from the impacts of unsafe foods. The food system of the world is unequal and unfair. Production volumes of crops, livestock and fish and forest products decline in some parts of the world because of climate change, and the content of nutrition in the products changes. The crops, livestock and fish production face 14 per cent of waste and the consumption 17 per cent. On the other hand, as a decline of the economy based on the COVID-19 pandemic hits the food sufficiency of the world, and the UN World Food and Agriculture Organization stated that some 100 million population might face the insufficiency of food in addition to the current 690 population of the world who also suffers from the impacts of food insufficiency.
As such, the global countries need to adopt effective policies for manufacturing nutritious, unsafe and quality products from the production chain in the agriculture sector which is basic for production of foods, minimizing the waste and loss, utilizing the crop and long term existent animal species and techniques in conformity with the climate change and having the chance for breeders and growers to earn the deserved incomes.
Some 70 per cent of the population of Myanmar are residing in the rural area, primarily engaging in the agriculture sector as the main business. The government is implementing the sustainable development plan, the rural region development strategic framework and the agricultural development strategy in line with the sustainable development goals of the United Nations.
The agriculture sector occupies 14.1 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product of the State according to the national plan in the 2019-20 financial year and 7.7 percent in the livestock sector. The total export value comprises 38 per cent of the export value of the agriculture sector.
The government is implementing the plans on the sufficiency of stable food rice in respective regions for ensuring food sufficiency and further production of quality paddy strains which can get good prices in the foreign market. Especially, efforts are being made to increase the per-acre yield in the current sown acreage.
As cooking oil is imported due to insufficiency of oil despite growing various edible oil crops in the country, it is necessary to raise the domestic cooking oil production by expanding the cultivation of groundnut and sesame in addition to oil palm, sunflower, maize, mustard and soya bean and extracting oil from bran, cotton seeds and maize. On the other hand, efforts are being made for educating the people to reduce consumption of cooking oil to be healthy and cut spending on foreign exchange.
The government pushes the farmers to increase the cultivation of cotton as a main crop in the textile sector for clothing and for generating the job opportunity and modernize the industrial finished goods production.
Although high costs of inputs, transport charges and production costs are high during the period of current COVID-19 infection, the country does not face shortages of foodstuffs. Moreover, as this year’s weather is fine and the agricultural water is sufficient, it is estimated that the cultivation and production of crops might not face any impacts.
Nay Pyi Taw Council Area, regions and states emphasize the adoption of the plans for the cultivation of sown acreage for important crops to ensure food sufficiency, production of quality seeds under the arrangements of relevant departments, cooperative societies and companies to distribute quality strains of seeds at fair prices and develop the private seed production, change cultivation of crops depending on the climatic conditions and geographical conditions, cultivate the cash crops and short-term vegetables in the areas with insufficient irrigated water, implement the plans of local food sufficiency and speed up the educative works on agricultural techniques.
Efforts are being made to distribute quality pedigrees of cattle and poultry for development of the livestock sector and increase of meat consumption to ensure nutritious sufficiency of the people, enhance high-quality regenerations based on artificial insemination and follow the Good Animal Husbandry Practices–GAHP at the livestock farms.
The government is providing assistance for implementation of the Good Aquaculture Practices-GAqP in fish and prawn farming for grasping the market shares at home and abroad and developing the fish farming process, conducting fish farming courses and distributing the necessary saplings, establishing the laboratory for testing the fish diseases, hatching the fish of cold area, distributing the livestock breeding techniques and fish breeding in cages in the rivers and creeks to local farmers.
Myanmar cultivated 17.20 million acres of staple food paddy which produced over 1,265 million baskets of paddy in 2020-2021 when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out. During the period, more than 7.21 acres of main edible crops such as groundnut, sesame and sunflower were cultivated to produce more than 184 million baskets and over 9.81 million acres of pulses and beans to produce over 156.89 million baskets. Moreover, Myanmar produced 1.05 million metric tons of meat, 5.4 million metric tons of fish, 18.7 million metric tons of milk and 2,283.81 million eggs during the period.
Moreover, relevant ministries and organizations are jointly implementing the five-year Multi-sectoral National Plan of Action on Nutrition (2018-2023) which aims to reduce the nutritious deficiency rate in the country. Thanks to the efforts to increase agricultural and livestock manufacturing and produce quality products, the country can sustain the sufficiency of rice and foods and export surplus foods.
The development of the country depends on equality in all sectors. Especially, development undertakings in states and less developed areas can narrow the gap between the urban and rural areas. As such, the government emphasizes supply of drinking water and electricity to the rural areas, setting up the fund without losing capital for doing business, the opening of vocational training courses, cooperation with departments and organizations in personal hygiene of the people and prevention of environmental pollution, and coordination with social organizations to provide techniques, capitals and markets for the manageable scale cottage industries.
Concerning environmental conservation, Myanmar became a member of the Convention of Biological Diversity-CBD in 1995. It drew the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (2015-2020) to implement the mission on conservation of biodiversity adopted by the conference of the member countries and is implementing it in cooperation with five subject-wise task forces. Moreover, Myanmar is implementing the Myanmar National Biosafety Framework to declare the national biosafety framework and policy.
To sustain the fish resources, the government set the non-fishing season, apply the vessel monitoring system for elimination of illegal fishing, set the non-fishing areas for respective species and fishing areas, check the fishermen not to use the prohibited fishing equipment and conduct the research on assessment for depositing the fish resources.
Esteemed national peoples,
This year’s theme of World Food Day is “Our actions are our future. Better Production, Better Nutrition, a Better Environment and a Better Life”.
For ensuring socio-economic life of the people and beautifying of the environment, the current endeavours of the government such as sufficiency of nutritious and safe foods, narrowing between the rich and the poor, and development of rural areas are conformed to the theme of this year’s theme of the World Food Day, and I’ve sent the message to the esteemed parents at the World Food Day which falls today that the government pledges to make further energetic efforts for its tasks with the active participation of the people.
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