Let us first look briefly at the performance of the agricultural sector and its role in the overall
economic development of Myanmar.
Table 1 indicates the changes in the composition of GDP by sector and annual growth rates
since the early 1980s. The agricultural sector was surprisingly slow to lose its relative importance in
terms of its contribution to GDP, and accounted for more than 40 % of GDP even in recent years (at
1985/86 constant prices). This suggests that the agricultural sector has been growing at a pace equal
to those of the other sectors of the economy.