2.2. Performance
Looking back over the past 20 years, paddy output appears to have grown more slowly than most other crops in spite of the Government of Myanmar’s heavy priority for rice. Even optimistic official production figures suggest that rice output has grown at about 3% annually over the past two and a half decades, with the bulk of these gains coming from area expansion. More conservative estimates from the USDA suggest paddy output has grown at closer to 1% per year.
Maize production has grown far more rapidly than rice, on the heels of rapidly growing demand for poultry feed and emerging regional export markets. Pulse production has grown more rapidly than any other agricultural commodity group since liberalization in 1988, at a compound annual rate of 9% per year. Horticulture and poultry output have grown at 6% to 7% annually over the past two and a half decades, driven by growing urban demand and growing incomes