Table 3 sets out the changes in the sown acreage of major crops. The total sown acreage, which
was 24 million acres in the late 1980s, has increased rapidly to 40 million acres in recent years.4
Since the land frontier disappeared long ago in Myanmar, this expansion of sown acreage can be
mostly attributed to the intensification of land use, or in other words to a rise in cropping intensity.
The sown acreage expanded in the case of almost every crop, except for oil seeds which are typical
crops for import competition. Rice, pulses, vegetables ( chilli, onion and garlic), cotton, sugarcane
and rubber all merit particular attention in this regard.
Table 4, by contrast, shows the changes in yield for major crops. A notable feature revealed by
Table 4 is that except for rice and rubber, yields have not shown any upward trend since 1988. We
can conclude that the development of the agricultural sector during the period was achieved through
the expansion of the sown acreage and not through improvements in land productivity.