export crops, the rate of price increase was generally quite high. Domestic prices, repressed at a very
low level, have risen dramatically because of the stimulus provided by international prices, and this
has resulted in a sharp increase in production and in exports. Second, the price of import competition
crops increased by only a small amount, since the expansion of imports prevented a surge in
domestic prices. Third, crops destined for the domestic market underwent a fairly large increase in
price. This may well be the result of the high income elasticity of items such as vegetables, meat and
fishery products.
In sum, the role of the agricultural sector in Myanmar’s economic recovery and growth after
1988 was very important, and remained so until the mid-1990s. This was made possible largely
through the price incentives given to the farmers. The agricultural marketing reforms of 1987 were
in general quite effective in achieving an adjustment between hitherto highly repressed agricultural
prices and international prices. The rate of price increase was very high, not only for a few (but
important) export crops but also for a variety of crops intended for the domestic market. Farmers
responded quickly to the new economic opportunities.
Increases in agricultural production can be achieved either by an expansion of the sown area or
by a rise in crop yields per unit area of land. This being the case, how did Myanmar increase its farm
output?
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