Chittagong, Bangladesh: Burma has asked for necessary cooperation between the two countries in the agriculture sector to increase rice output and has accepted the proposal in principle, according to a senior official from the Ministry of Agriculture, speaking on April 8th.
"It is just a beginning and both sides will have to sit for several rounds of talks for finding probable modalities before going ahead with the cooperation," the official said.
The assistance has been sought recently as Burma adopted a policy to increase rice exports gradually,beginning during the current fiscal year, following decades of virtual international isolation under military rule and imposition of Western sanctions.
In the recent months, Burmese officials showed great interest in Bangladesh’s policy on agriculture, which envisages extending large-scale assistance and trainingto farmers, through which the country could increase its agricultural output, an official of the Foreign Ministry said.
Bangladesh, which faced food shortages in 1974 when its population reached 75 million, has been producing sufficient food for its 160 million people over the last few years, officials at the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) said.
Farmers have successfully increased food production because of the government policy of extending relentless assistance to them in the form of agricultural inputs, including fertilizers and power for irrigation.
However, Burma refused a Bangladesh proposal last year to lease agricultural land from its neighbor.
"Shifting from that position, they are now seeking our cooperation to boost food production in Myanmar," Foreign Ministry officials said.
Bangladesh has raised its rice production to 34.25 million tons in 2011, agricultural experts observed.
However, despite having a geographical land mass more than five times bigger and less than half the population of Bangladesh, Burma’s annual rice production still remains less than 34 million tons a year.
Although rice production is much lower in Burma in comparison to its vast area of some 261,970 sq miles (678,580 sq km), the country exports a substantial quantity of rice annually.
Burma plans to increase its rice exports by 20 per cent( to 1.0 million tons) in the current fiscal year of 2012-2013 (which began on April 1 and will come to an end on March 31, 2013).
