Agricultural Extension Service in Myanmar
The agricultural extension service in Myanmar was started in 1927 by the department of agriculture. This service provided educational activities, collection of statistical data, enforcement of standard weights and measures, as well as procurement and distribution of improved seeds, farm implements, fertilizers and insecticides. However, extension work concentrated on the distribution of improved seeds and input delivery.
In 1976, a World Bank project introduced the Training and Visit system (T&V) and it was successful by providing subject matter specialists (agronomists, entomologists, etc.), and mobility facilities such as speedboats, small ships and motorcycles. At the end of the project the activities began to slow down, because of lack of resource persons and mobility.
From 1979 to 1986 the Selected Concentrative Strategy (SCS) approach was implemented in a special production program for high yielding rice varieties in irrigated areas. It works almost like the T&V approach, but was designed in Myanmar. The present extension approaches in Myanmar are SCS and the T&V system.
The Myanmar Agriculture Service (MAS) is one of 14 institutions of the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation (MOAI), and the Agricultural Extension Division (AED) nowadays is the biggest among the nine divisions of the MAS and absorbs a large amount of the total strength of MAS, having 11081 staff. The main objectives of the Agricultural Extension Division are