In Mudon township Burmese government authorities are forcing the sale of physic nut plans to villagers despite the plant’s lack of value as a crop, and poor growth in area soil.
During this last week the Burmese military government Township Peace and Development Council (TPDC) in Mudon town began forcing the sale of the plant to area village headman during a weekly meeting. The plants and seeds of the physic nut, also known as “castor oil plant” and “jatropha”, are sold to the village headmen in large quantities, who in turn are forced to sell them to villagers. According to sources these meetings normally focus on topics pertaining to, or are on preparation for, the 2010 election.
The village headmen, under pressure from the TPDC, must resell the plants for around 300 kyat per plant to villagers. Larger houses are forced to buy 4 plants while smaller ones must buy 2.
“They looked, depending on the number of households in a village [large, medium, small] and charged three prices,” explained a source close to a village headman. “For a large village they had to pay around 200,000 kyat, for a medium village around 150,000 kyat and for a small village around 105,000 kyat. Also, we have to plant physic nut plants on our free land in our village.”
Residents do not know why they are forced to buy the plants as they do not grow well in the area, and provide no value as a crop. Last January 14 students who tried eating the fruit of the physic nut in Thanpyuzayat township became ill with head aches and were sent to the hospital.
In recent years the Burmese military government began a campaign of planting the nut throughout the country, claiming it would be used in the production of bio fuels despite the lack of infrastructure to develop the fuels.
According to a March article in Time magazine, the plants have come to be considered by the superstitious junta, as antidotes to the wide spread popularity and potential power of the nations imprisoned democracy icon, Aung San Suu Kyi. The name for the physic nut in Burmese is “kyet suu”, wich sounds like Suu Kyi’s name backwards, and is astrologically her names opposite. As Burmese superstation holds, some ill effect or threat can be countered with its opposite, such as planting a plant with the name opposite of ones political foe.
Either reason does little to relive Mudon township’s residents who must pay for the plants. The TPDC has give villagers no choice but to buy and plant the plants, according to residents, giving villagers and headman till the end of August to make their purchases. Mudon Township contains 42 villages.
“This isn’t time for rubber [cultivation]. We also have to pay many [arbitrary] taxes to the authority and sometimes we don’t want to pay but we have to,” A Mudon resident complained. “We heard most of the other villagers also don’t want to give [this money].”
Last year, government authorities forced each household to by 5 physic nut plants. However the apparent strategy was unsuccessful after the plants died, thus prompting a second round of sales. Additionally the physic nut seeds were sold to many people who came to make identity cards (ID) in the area immigration office. There they were reportedly unable to obtain a card till they bought seeds.
