Myanmar is an agriculture-based country and the agriculture sector contributes 34% of GDP (Gross Domestic Product), 23% of total export earnings and employs 63% of the work force. Although the country is rich in natural resources, Myanmar is one of the Least Developed Countries (LDC) in the world. 75% of the country‘s population are living in rural areas. One of the most striking features is the extreme isolation of people residing in rural areas. Villages as close as 6 or 8 km from a main road are cut off from many basic services.
The population will grow to about 60 million by the year 2010, and the demand for the local rice consumption will be approximately 20 millions tons. To be able to supply enough food for the increasing population and export the surplus, rice production will have to be increased up to 25 millions tons, by expanding rice grown area up to 6 million hectares. One of the major economic objectives is “development of agriculture as a base and all-round development of other sectors of the economy as well”. How to cope with this tremendous challenges? Myanmar still favours a traditional extension approach.
In the beginning of 2001 the author collected data from selected extension agents through structured interviews to gain insights about the bottlenecks and potentials of the present approach.