Officials visit Myanmar next month to see contract farming prospects

File photo shows Bangladeshi farmers busy in harvesting from their paddy field in a village. A high profile government delegation will go to Myanmar next month to examine the prospect of up to 10,000 Bangladeshi farmers leasing land in the neighbouring country.

A high profile government delegation will be sent to Myanmar next month to examine the prospect of up to 10,000 Bangladeshi farmers leasing land in the neighbouring country.
During the formal talks between the two countries in Yangoon in May, 2007, Dhaka got a formal proposal from Myanmar in which it expressed its intention to lease out at least 50,000 acres of land in its Rakhine state for cultivation on contract.
Dhaka now wants to carry out an assessment on the Chinese and Thai contract farming who are already operating in Myanmar before reaching a final decision on the proposal.
A high official of the foreign ministry said the government eyes to ink a deal in this connection this year.
“We are hopeful that around 10,000 Bangladeshi farmers mostly from Chittagong region could be employed in such contract farming in Myanmar, if the government gives a go-ahead,” the official said.
He said Bangladeshi farmers have innovative knowledge on farming and they will be benefited by this concept of contract farming.
Chairman of Bangladesh-Myanmar Business Promotion Council Syed Mahmudul Huq said Bangladeshi farmers may primarily concentrate on producing three types of agricultural productspaddy, pulse and maizeunder contract farming in Myanmar.
Meanwhile, Dhaka is also considering update the existing border trade rules with Myanmar to expand such trade with the neighbouring country.
The government decided to increase border trade from current US$ 10,000 to $ 20,000. The decision was taken at a meeting of the inter-ministerial sub-committee on Bangladesh-Myanmar trade. Commerce Secretary Feroz Ahmed presided over the meeting held at the commerce ministry conference room recently.
Bangladesh Bank has already given its consent to enhance such border trade to facilitate more imports of essential commodities like rice and pulses.
The commerce ministry meeting also decided to take initiative so that the border trade station could be shifted from Teknaf to Chittagong.
Myanmar's low level of economic development, poor human rights record isolated it internationally.
It, with 41 million populations, has the highest adult literacy rate in Southeast Asia at 81 per cent.
“Myanmar has the potential because of its climate, topography, soil conditions, rainfall, waterways, agricultural land resources, fishery resources and human resources to produce an extensive variety of competitively priced agricultural, livestock and fishery products,” Abdul Wahab, joint secretary at the commerce ministry, said.