Contents & Foreword, Characterizing And ... - IRRI books

(13%), triple rice cropping (3%), and rice-fish farming (6%). Hence, the remaining78% of the total farming households were all rainfed farms, which grew only one ricecrop during the monsoon season. Despite the low percentage of adopters of the newlyestablished rice-based technologies, their experiences provided the study with valuableinsights regarding the incentives, constraints, and problems they faced in theprocess of adoption and adaptation of these technologies.Farmer interviews were carried out to identify biophysical and socioeconomicfactors that led to the adoption of the new rice-based technologies. A statistical approachand cost and return analysis were used to characterize the impacts of recentdevelopments on the village rice economy and farmers’ production systems. Likewise,Gini ratios were estimated and Lorenz curves were fitted to describe the incomedistributions found in the sample villages representing the different rice ecosystemsin the study area.To identify the major rice production constraints, data were collected through aseries of surveys in 30 selected townships from five divisions and one state(Ayeyarwardy, Bago, Yangon, Sagaing, and Mandalay divisions, and Shan State) inupper, central, and lower Myanmar. These sites were selected since approximately80% of the total rice crop in Myanmar is grown in these locations. Major biotic andabiotic factors that significantly constrained rice production were evaluated and rankedin terms of yield reduction brought about by these factors. Problems associated withthese constraints were then prioritized, which allowed us to identify alternative managementpractices that can help minimize their adverse effects.Recent developments in the Myanmar rice economySown areaThe crop area planted to rice was less than 5 million hectares from 1962 to 1990(Table 1). Since 1991, however, area planted to rice grew annually by 4%, reaching 6million hectares in 1995. Government efforts to expand and open new lands increasedthe net sown area by one million hectares over five years. In the crop year 1995-96,total rice area for the whole Union of Myanmar was 6 million hectares, wherein 4.83million hectares were devoted to monsoon (wet-season) rice and 1.21 million hectaresfor summer (dry-season) rice. After 1996, summer rice area started to decline,reaching only 0.89 million hectares in 1998, thus decreasing the total rice sown area.The summer rice area decreased because of the limited supply of diesel fuel for irrigationpumps and commercial fertilizer (both related to foreign currency limitations),hence only the more suitable rice areas were targeted for planting.Production and yieldRice production changed drastically from 1962 to 1995 (Table1). It increased fromabout 8 million metric tons in the 1960s to about 16 million metric tons in the early1990s. Average rice yields also almost doubled from 1.6 to 3.0 t ha –1 within the period.The production growth rate was about 1% in the 1960s and reached 5% in the1970s. The increase in rice yield was the major factor that induced production growthSocioeconomic and biophysical characterization of rainfed . . . 409