3.1 Consolidation
3.2 MYA/96/006* dry zone project3
3.3 MYA/96/007* Southern Shan State4
3.4 MYA/96/008* Ayeyarwady Delta Zone Project5
The Mission believes that the three FAO-executed Projects have most capably addressed the needs of the rural communities in their areas, in most cases exceeding the established implementation targets. They have developed and introduced a range of innovative development interventions in resource-poor agricultural communities in Myanmar. Project interventions are based on a participatory process which leads to a response to the expressed needs of the communities, a process which is often based on developments in, or adjustments to, familiar technologies. Nonetheless, there is concern that the relatively short time horizon of thirty months established for Phase III of the HDI Programme will not be sufficient to establish the consolidation and longer term continuity of many of the Projects' interventions. For several village communities in the Dry Zone, for instance, their only experience of the Project in the past three years will have been one solely of drought conditions. The recent HDI Assessment Mission1 commented that, "Short phases, however, are not appropriate to almost any rural development or community-based project, particularly those from the low base from which HDI commenced." And further, that the "...time frame is too short for a community based rural development programme and inhibits staff in tasks of planning and implementation."
1 "Human Development Initiative-Extension and Preparations for HDI-Phase 3, Report of Assessment Mission". Draft, United Nations Development Programme, Myanmar, 3 March 1999.
A major expansion of target villages is proposed in Phase III; 51 new villages in the Dry Zone, 141 in the Southern Shan States, and 300 in the Delta. This implies a pressure to deliver inputs which may be at the expense of capacity building and long term development. The three FAO-executed projects face the dilemma of meeting the expansion targets while continuing to service the programme in existing villages, essential to developing the sustainability of the interventions, yet placing a loyal and dedicated field staff under further pressure.
The SPPD Mission concludes that the Projects' watershed protection and development approach which is based on area rather than households is correct in terms of protecting the environment and the sustainable use of agricultural resources. Such an approach, however, will benefit all inhabitants, rich and poor alike. But the Mission believes that, in selecting for the need for environmental protection rather than exclusively on the basis of poverty, Project interventions will be able to generate a greater expectation of sustainability. All three Projects have successfully raised awareness of the need for soil and water conservation.
Sustainability
Sustainability implies the need to institutionalise the proven interventions and approaches. National organisations are working with the three Projects as cooperating or facilitating agencies and, indeed, meeting the costs for their own activities. But it was at least, in part, as a response to the lack of coverage in terms of extension, research, and credit, that the projects developed their own facilities in these areas. There is no reason to believe that the relevant national organisations will be in a position to provide those services should the projects terminate at the end of Phase III. But in terms of human resource development many of the interventions of the three projects will be sustainable, albeit at a local level. Communities which can continue to maintain a vibrant revolving fund, for instance, will be in a position to sustain income generating opportunities developed under the projects. For example, groups in the Dry Zone, with access to appropriate funding, will be able to provide training and services in watershed protection to other communities.
The UNDP Assessment Mission, well summarised the situation with regard to the sustainability of the interventions of the HDI. "HDI should not be regarded as a sustainable development programme in the full and normal use of that concept. Many activities of HDI are not sustainable in an institutional sense because of the mandate under which HDI operates. On the other hand, HDI is promoting many activities which are sustainable at community and individual levels. HDI may be regarded as a humanitarian programme which, because it is people-centred and community-based, is contributing significantly to sustainable human development, and can continue to do so."2 In this regard the SPPD Mission concludes that it is time, at the start of Phase III, to initiate the identification, selection, and training of future leaders and managers within target communities who will be able to give guidance after Project termination.
2 Report of Assessment Mission, op. cit.
* Environmentally Sustainable Food Security and Micro Income Opportunities in the Dry Zone
3 Based on visits to villages in Kyaukpadaung and Magway Townships.
Introduction
The Dry Zone area covers approximately 677,000 km2 (17 percent of the total land area of Myanmar) and includes 22 out of 26 Townships in the Mandalay Division, 18 out of 25 Townships in Magwey Division, and 18 out of 34 Townships in Sagaing Division. The estimated population of the Dry Zone is 11.5 million (27 percent of the total population). The major landuse categories include cultivated land, wasteland, and Reserve Forest land. The common lands, the waste lands and Reserve Forest land, are being encroached for farming, livestock grazing and the collection of fuelwood. It is estimated that approximately 20 percent of the households in the townships covered by the FAO-executed project are landless. In response to a lack of income generating opportunities in the Dry Zone seasonal migration, especially by men, is common.
The Dry Zone is a resource-poor area with scarce water resources, thin vegetation cover and severe soil erosion. Its 20 to 40-inch rainfall is uneven and unreliable, broken by a July drought period and desiccating winds. Much of the minimal rainfall comes in torrential downpours and is lost as run-off. The year 1998 was the third successive year of drought, with rainfall below 15 inches and largely failed crops. Water is in critically short supply and often has to be transported long distances by bullock cart.
Rapid population growth has fragmented land holdings and placed heavy burdens on the lean resources and fragile environment. Declining agricultural yields have forced farmers to cultivate increasingly more marginal steeper land, often under dry thorn forest. Forests were not only cleared for agriculture but also were, and still are, cut for fuelwood (often for jaggery making) and charcoal as an important source of income for the poorest people. The destruction of hillside forests and the overgrazing of pastures resulted in increased runoff which began to overwhelm the traditional sediment storage dams and small checkdams built by farmers decades ago.
In Kyaukpadaung Township the agro-ecological conditions, range from hilly areas with shallow, stony soils to sedimentary plateau areas. There is considerable gully and sheet erosion activity brought on by the destruction of forest and vegetation cover in recent times and intense rain storms during the monsoon season. Agricultural soils are silt-clays. Water run-off is high with little infiltration into the soil.
Maximum land holdings rarely exceed 16 acres; the majority of farm households have less than seven acres with most of these being of four acres or less. In general, seven to eight acres are considered to be the minimum farm size to provide food security for a family. The main crops grown are cash crops: sesame, cotton (both short staple for domestic use and long staple for government purchase), green gram, chickpea and sunflower. Sorghum and millet for human and livestock consumption are also grown but rice is a rarity.
Every village has some pigs, draught cattle, goats and chickens but many households have few or no livestock, particularly the landless. Draught cattle are stall fed in the village with wild grasses and crop residues but other cattle and goats free-graze on marginal lands and hillsides. Draught cattle are generally in short supply, resulting in a high proportion of late sown crops, leading to reduced yields (20-50 percent reduction in yield due to late planting is reported). Farmers report decreasing annual rainfall in recent years and this, together with declining soil fertility has led to overall reduction in crop yields. Some examples provided by farmers indicate that over the past 15 years butter bean yields have decreased from 495 kg/acre to 165 kg/acre; cotton yield has been reduced by half from 560 kg/acre to 240 kg/acre while sunflower has decreased from 225 kg/acre to 90 kg/acre. Agriculture thus is in decline and unless this trend can be reversed through large-scale water and soil conservation measures and the introduction of improved sustainable farming technologies, the future for many rural communities is indeed bleak.
Productivity of cropland is poor; organic manure and chemical fertilizers are applied but generally in insufficient quantities to give high yields. In addition, farmers face considerable risk in applying increasingly expensive fertilizers due to the high incidence of droughts or partial droughts. The past three years have all been years of poor rainfall.
In Magway Township, the project's zone of implementation is in the north-east sector. The topography is relatively flat but with many erosion gullies and considerable top soil loss. There is extensive deforestation of marginal lands. Soils are sandy and there is little rock and stone. On average about 55 percent of households within the township are farmers, 42 percent are landless while 2 percent are livestock households with no cultivated lands.
The main early monsoon crops are groundnut and sesame (May - July) while late monsoon crops include sorghum, mungbean, green gram, black gram and cowpea (August - January).
Most land holdings are less than 10 acres while many are under 5 acres. In recent times, annual rainfall has been decreasing, soil fertility is in decline and crop pests are said to be increasing. As a result, crop yields have fallen considerably. Ten years ago, groundnut gave average yields of 80 baskets/acre; now yields are 25-50 baskets/acre. Sesame gave 15 baskets/acre, and it has now fallen to 10-12 baskets/acre. Late sowing of crops due to shortage of draught power exacerbates the situation for many of the farmers. The livestock situation is similar to that in Kyaukpadaung Township.
Project interventions
The project's integrated area-development approach links water harvesting and soil conservation directly to fodder production, livestock, tree growth, rehabilitation of cropland and employment opportunities. The interventions seek to overcome constraints to production in the cropping systems through technological packages that are suited to the conditions of the Dry Zone and that are technically appropriate to the farmers.
Soil and water conservation
The project takes a watershed and catchment area approach to deal with erosion control and water harvesting with a view to improving crop production potential and the sustainable development of agriculture. Soil conservation and water harvesting have been the project's cornerstones in restoring land productivity. Extensive areas have been treated with soil and stone bunds, contour trenches, micro-basins, herring-bone and half-moon structures, overflow earth dams, run-off/run-on bunds, checkdams, bund/trench and straw trench stabilization and sediment storage dams. The involvement of all land users (not only the poorest) in constructing these structures from the top to the bottom of whole sub-catchments has proved to be a highly effective approach. Most of the structures themselves are integrated with the planting of trees and the sowing of, for example, green gram, millet, sorghum, or good local grasses on bunds and micro-basins, and vegetable crops behind checkdams. Natural grass regeneration provides fodder for livestock and material for composting. By shaping the gullied and abandoned cropland behind sediment storage dams, farmers trap the topsoil washed down from upstream. This can create fertile new fields behind the dams in two to five years depending on the depth and width of the gulley and the farmer's efforts to reshape the sides.
Some 4,900 acres have been treated with soil and water conservation measures, including nearly 700 sediment storage dams, 5,371 checkdams, contour bunds on 2,150 acres and 462,000 woodlot trenches of various designs. Sediment storage dams are expected to reclaim over 940 acres of fertile land which can be used for paddy rice production. By trapping sediment with checkdams, at least 1,000 farmers have been able to restore fertility and grow vegetables on more than 750 additional acres. The water harvesting structures of the project are already recharging aquifers and increasing the supply of water in village wells.
The project has tailored the designs and appropriateness of conservation structures to the soil type, topography and rainfall. Villagers have installed the structures on lands claimed under customary rights or on hillsides to be leased to them under the 1995 Community Forestry Instruction. The scale of physical demonstration is impressive.
Project farmers were already well aware of soil conservation principles. In Kyaukpadaung, farmers built sediment storage dams 80 to 100 years ago, but the traditional designs could no longer withstand the increased water runoff from deforested hillsides. The project has improved on traditional designs and practices, encouraged collective action to treat whole sub-catchments rather than individual fields, and provided the resources for a concerted effort. Construction of all these soil and water conservation measures is also providing employment to landless people and to small farmers and so reducing out-migration in search of work elsewhere in Myanmar during the dry season.
On sloping marginal lands, used for grazing, soil fertility is generally very low, due to the almost complete erosion of the top soil, and any grass growth is usually of poor quality. The project plans a 50-acre demonstration site for the rehabilitation of such areas. Techniques used will include soil or stone contour bunds (according to the prevailing land slope), with the area behind roughly ploughed and seeded with good quality local grasses. In addition the project will establish in the coming Phase III, a demonstration and training site showing all soil conservation and water harvesting technologies for hillsides, marginal lands and cultivated lands in the one area.
These soil and water conservation measures, undertaken on the basis of the catchment or watershed, are demonstrating effectively that the decline in land degradation can be slowed and that depleted water tables can be recharged even in conditions of drought. Such measures are crucial to arresting the decline in agricultural production and are the basis on which sustainable development can be built. The interventions being demonstrated and implemented by the project are costly and labour intensive although, on a comparative basis, physical structures are cheaper to build in Myanmar than in any other Asian country. Nonetheless the challenge will be to identify ways in which these soil and water conservation measures might be replicated in a post-project situation. There is some evidence that replication of improved contour bunding is already taking place in non-project villages. The Ministry of Agriculture is also planning to undertake soil and water conservation in the Dry Zone, based on models implemented by the project. However, for fullest impact, this approach should be undertaken with the cooperation of the Forestry and Livestock Departments also.
Replicability might occur where there is Government or private sector support or if the CBO is strong enough to sustain the development process. This latter situation might occur where the CBO is socially and managerially mature, able to provide technical and extension advice, and has the financial base to provide subsidised credit. For soil and water conservation, subsidies might be financed from the income generated through other activities of the CBO. Whether or not this takes place depends on the development priorities of the community. There are indications that in Kyaukpadaung township, where land degradation is a critical issue and where farmers are aware of the need for structural measures, the CBOs are providing medium term loans to farmers to construct Soil Sedimentation Dams to bring back land under cultivation. Farmers are already indicating the social and economic acceptability of these dams by using their own resources for maintenance. Moreover, it is also possible for the CBOs to generate income for the revolving fund by investing in land development. Land would be purchased by them, rehabilitated and sold to members of the community.
No detailed financial and economic analyses have been undertaken yet to assess the overall returns to investments of these soil and water conservation technologies. These should be done as soon as sufficient reliable data becomes available in order to indicate their viability situation. However, if it is considered important that rural communities continue to live in these upland rainfed areas of the Dry Zone, then large-scale investments in soil and water conservation must be made either through Government or outside donors. Otherwise, agriculture will continue to be unsustainable and in rapid decline with increasing hardship for the people, and with consequent rising migration.
Provision of fertilizers
The supply fertilizers (mainly urea and triple superphosphate) has been the initial entry point between the project and the farming community. The value of the fertilizers is repaid into a revolving fund managed by the village Farmer Income Generating Group (FIGG). The FIGG has enabled farmers to purchase fertilizers at cheaper rates than were previously available from money lenders.
A recent innovation by the project to encourage repayment and to assist member farmers to overcome a drop in income due to drought conditions has been to provide all members with two weaner pigs for fattening and sale when at least 50% of total fund loans have been repaid.
Farmers (in all three zones) expressed a desire for more technical knowledge and skills. In the Dry Zone the project is currently preparing a training manual on integrated soil fertility management and is considering the use of the farmer field school approach as a possible training modality.
Seed distribution
The project has introduced several short season varieties of locally grown crops, including green gram, mungbean and chickpea. These short season varieties gave relatively good yields against the local varieties which failed or partly failed due to drought and provided excellent demonstrations to farmers. Other improved varieties supplied include sesame, wheat, sorghum, rice, groundnut, sunflower, onion and beans. Most of the varieties were already available in Myanmar but were not known in these remote project areas.
Pesticides and sprayers
The project has supplied pesticides, knapsack sprayers and training in pest management to most FIGGS. Training has been successful in improving farmers' use of pesticides and spray programmes. There is increasing focus on integrated pest management (EPM) and an IPM manual is in preparation.
Small scale irrigation
The scope for small-scale irrigation is limited on account of the scarcity of surface water during the dry season and limited freshwater underground resources. Where resources are available the project provides training in irrigation management. Localised small-scale irrigation of home gardens through open wells (hand-pumped water) and deeper tube wells also takes place.
Livestock
Livestock interventions have been mainly directed to landless households and the disadvantaged, with all decisions on household selection and prioritisation being made by the village community. In the Dry Zone, livestock development aims at increasing production and household income while ensuring that the livestock population matches the available fodder and forage, and does not exceed market demand.
Small scale income generation through provision of goats
In-kid does have been provided to selected landless households in eight villages which have sufficient rangeland grazing available and where the goats will not pose a threat to newly established community forestry areas. The value of the does is repayable to the Livestock Income Generating Group (LIGG) after 18 months from income received from the sale of the kids. This would seem to be a good income generating activity, incurring little cost beyond the initial investment. Agreed management of grazing lands and the controlled use of community woodlots (after they have matured sufficiently to allow grazing) and rehabilitated marginal lands will be essential to ensure the long-term sustainability of this activity.
Small scale income generation through pig breeding and pig fattening
Pig breeding is the most popular means of income generation among landless households and has been very successful. An initial priority group of twenty landless households is formed in each participating village and each household is provided with one pregnant sow. After some six or seven months, when the first litter has been sold, the value of the sow (K. 10,000) must be repaid to the LIGG revolving fund. Following payback, other landless households are eligible for sows according to their priority ranking. Where the pregnant sow has been purchased for less than the loan amount (K. 10,000) through bargaining, the LIGG borrows back the savings, enabling the bulk purchase of cheaper feed which is passed on to the pig owners. This system also increases the savings in the revolving fund.
Available information suggests that, on average, a substantial net profit is realised after the second litter. However, the cost of a pregnant sow is relatively high for a landless household without access to credit. The replication of such schemes will require the availabilty of an efficiently managed and healthy revolving fund in the hands of the LIGG, or access to other rural credit facilities.
In the pig fattening scheme two or more weaned piglets (valued at K. 2,500 each) are provided to selected households. Traditional feeding may be supplemented by oil cake, available in the village. The fattened pigs are sold after 8 months for about K. 17,500 each. There is thus scope to earn a relatively high net income from pig fattening. This activity, not surprisingly, is in high demand and so far has been very successful. There is an export market for fattened pigs with traders coming mainly from Shan State to buy for the Chinese market, in addition to local township markets. The project is considering the introduction of meat processing in Phase III.
To provide essential veterinary care in a timely manner the project selects two livestock extension workers (LEWs) in each village and provides one week of training in veterinary medicine. Livestock owners pay for their services and for the medicine. LEWs can earn K. 2,000-4,000 per month. Members of the LIGG must contribute K. 50 per month to an emergency veterinary medical fund from which they can borrow when treatment of their pigs becomes necessary. Repayment after one week incurs no interest but thereafter interest is charged at 4 percent per month. Government veterinary services are focused primarily on vaccinations for draught animals.
Poultry egg production
The project offers a one-month training programme and subsequent loan facilities to farmers who have previous experience in poultry. This activity has not been particularly popular, partly because of the risk of serious disease, although a Newcastle disease vaccine is now becoming widely available.
Community stud bull
To assist in up-grading the village cattle population and overcoming the shortage of animal draught power the project has supplied one stud bull for breeding purposes in each of several groups of adjacent villages. The bull is placed in the care of one landless household which must repay the value (K. 45,000) to the LIGG over two years on the basis of income from service fees (K. 300 per service).
In the forthcoming Phase III, the project is considering a programme to further alleviate the draught power shortage through the supply of a pair of oxen plus plough and harrow to the LIGG for hiring out to farmers.
The recent introduction on a demonstration basis of urea-molasses nutrient blocks (using locally available materials) should prove to be of value to livestock production. If successful, it is an intervention which could be considered by the Shan and Delta projects.
Pasture establishment on community land
The Project has attempted to establish good natural grasses through seeding in communal forestry woodlots. These activities have suffered from the drought conditions. Nevertheless, the project has demonstrated that in plantation sites treated with water harvesting measures there is a high potential for producing fodder of natural grass and sown millet. This will be an important element of the overall technology development planned for Phase III. The strategy in the coming phase will be to focus on fodder production rather than on grazed pasture. This fodder will come from fodder trees and shrubs to be planted in community forestry plots and along contour bunds; and from the cutting-and-carrying of good natural grasses growing in forestry plots and marginal lands. For that purpose, the project plans to locate and sow better local grasses and deep-rooted legumes on these sites to improve nutritional quality. Additional fodder will also become available in later years from the trees Leucaena, Acacia catechu and Ziziphus jujuba. While cutting and carrying of fodder might not be a traditional practice in the Dry Zone, it is a much more attractive alternative than would be the opening up of the woodlots to allow controlled grazing after the trees are properly established and less vulnerable in, say, five years time.
Improved organic manure and composting
Every LIGG member must provide a sheltered manure pit to better maintain manure quality. Manure has a value of about K. 400 per bullock cart load, so additional revenue may be earned through the sale of this by-product.
Every FIGG member must make compost. Training in compost making and the use of "effective microbes" (EM) is being undertaken. The use of EM reduces the length of time required for compost preparation. Farmers report definite benefits from applying compost. It is envisaged that large quantities of poor quality grasses will become available from the protected community forestry plantations for composting. This should substantially increase the volume of compost available for agriculture. Compost will be an important resource for improvement of land productivity, given the high price of chemical fertilizers. However, some chemical fertilizer may be needed to supplement compost use. Field research will be important to determine the most appropriate combinations.
Community forestry
In the Kyaukpadaung and Magwey Townships there appears to be considerable scope for community forestry in terms of available land with a forestry potential. The project is helping villagers acquire 30-year leases on forest land under the 1995 Community Forestry Instruction. Since none of the land applied for is under direct Forest Department control, the process is lengthy and no lease certificates have yet been issued. Natural forests have all but disappeared around villages, so all the community forests are planted on bare eroded hillsides treated with water harvesting structures. Members of the user groups mostly comprise all households in the village or landless families in the village. The project reports an overall satisfactory performance of the forestry CBOs. Participation is enhanced through the involvement of the whole community. On the other hand a number of years will be required to prepare and train user groups for community forestry, taking into account the needs for awareness raising, planning, training and the actual operations of seedling production, planting, weeding and early protection, as well as the slow growth of trees.
Forest management plans, required under the 1995 Instruction, are presently being prepared, spelling out silvicultural prescriptions and eventual utilization of the forest. Villagers expect to reap fodder, fuelwood, small timber and poles from their woodlots in five to fifteen years.
Productivity of trees planted conventionally in simple pits is poor in this harsh environment, but the use of water harvesting structures has dramatically improved tree and grass growth and survival. Survival of 1998 planting is currently estimated at over 60 percent. Of the ten or so species planted, the best performing are Acacia catechu, Eucalyptus, Cassia siamea and Leucaena. The Myanmar Forest Department has been impressed by these demonstrations and hopes to replicate water harvesting structures widely in the region for its planting programmes.
Site protection against the encroachment of outsiders, uncontrolled grazing, and fire protection are serious problems. With the support of the project many communities are developing their own measures to address these problems.
Agroforestry
The project has started to implement various agroforestry systems in all three Townships. These include alley cropping, boundary planting, homestead planting and an improved fallow system. The tree species selected are mainly nitrogen fixing. For homestead planting fruit trees such as tamarind, cashew nut, guava, (grafted) lime and custard apple were distributed to interested families.
Fuel-efficient stoves
Most domestic fuelwood comes from scattered trees on the roadsides and farm boundaries, from Prosopis scrub and from crop residues. A popular intervention by the project has been the provision of the fuel-efficient A-1 stove. To date some 8,000 have been distributed and stove production has begun in Kyaukpadaung Township. Fuelwood savings of up to 50 percent have been reported.
Participatory technology development, extension and training
The project has undertaken several evaluations and demonstrations of improved crop varieties and tillage operations, the latter through contracts with the Agricultural Mechanisation Department. These activities include evaluation of the benefits of row-sowing of sunflower, introduction of a number of short-season varieties, early ploughing, and deep ploughing and ripping. Participatory technology development activities will be much expanded in Phase III when they are expected to generate considerable information for planning and extension.
The project has established an effective extension network that is able to deliver agriculture and livestock packages to the rural communities with the appropriate technology transfer. At the village level, this work is mainly the responsibility of the Community Level Extension Workers (CLEWs), who are assigned approximately one per village. Some of the CLEWs hold diplomas in agriculture. To assist them in the technology transfer are volunteer extension workers and contact farmers. Every person receives field level training in the package(s) he or she handles. The project also upgrades staff technical skills (at all levels). Field days are held at selected sites for representatives of all FIGGs and LIGGs who can then pass on their knowledge to their members. Through this close contact with farmers, senior project staff are also kept informed of problems and constraints when they arise.
This extension system operates well within the project. However, its sustainability after the termination of the project must be doubtful since Government does not have the resources at present to take over extension staff and their activities. It seems unlikely also that a grassroots extension NGO could be formed, which could receive external assistance or be paid for its services by the community. Extension services could be replicated where a mature CBO establishes them as a community priority. In the Third Phase the project will continue to search for effective modalities to continue the provision of extension services. Most of the CLEWS, at present, see themselves as returning to farming at the end of the project.
Nevertheless, the training which they have received through the project will certainly enable them to continue to act as advisers in their communities and could, indeed, fit them to take up positions of leadership.
Marketing of produce beyond the local community can be a problem particularly for the more remote villages of the Dry Zone. Roads are rough or non-existent, hiring of bullock carts can be difficult, and for the remote villages, visits by outside traders are infrequent. Access difficulties to the larger markets are probably the main constraints to marketing. At present, there seems to be a demand for most farm products that exceeds supply. There are international markets for several crops (sesame, green gram, onion, pigeon pea, plums (Zizyphus)) and also for pigs and goats. These markets however may depend on export licences and so demand could fluctuate rapidly. To facilitate the marketing of livestock, the project is encouraging the establishment of Livestock Production and Marketing Organisations (LPMO). Composed of the LIGG chairmen from groups of five villages each, the LPMO is responsible for providing information and identifying marketing opportunities for livestock and livestock by-products. This is a worthwhile initiative and should help to increase the sustainability of livestock activities in the future.
* Environmentally Sustainable Food Security and Micro Income Opportunities in Critical Watersheds (Southern Shan State).4 Based on visits to villages in Pindaya, Kalaw, and Ywangon Townships
Introduction
Shan State is among the largest of the states and divisions in Myanmar and is divided into two parts, Northern Shan State and Southern Shan State. The Shan Plateau is an extensive upland area with altitudes ranging from 1,000 to 2,300 meters above sea level.
The FAO project area under HDI-E and also under the proposed Phase III comprises five contiguous townships in Southern Shan State, including Nyaungshwe, Ywangan, Kalaw, Pindaya and Pinlaung. The total area is 9,500 km2 and the total population is estimated at 480,000. Four important watersheds are present in the project area, namely Inle, Kinda, Paunglaung and Zawgyi watersheds.
The four watersheds within the project area feed three economically important multipurpose reservoirs (Kinda, Hmawbi and Zawgyi) which provide most of the country's needs for hydropower and irrigation. In the five project Townships physical infrastructure, public services and rural development are limited by terrain and isolation. Pressure on natural resources is intense and income opportunities are few. Excessive fuelwood cutting, shortened fallow periods for shifting cultivation, inefficient cultivation practices and uncontrolled livestock grazing have led to severe loss of soil organic matter and poor water retention, uncontrolled runoff, landslides, flooding and sedimentation of dams.
Most people in the Southern Shan State project area are subsistence farmers, one third of them with access to less than three acres of land. The proportion of land under fallow is declining because of population pressure. Loss of topsoil through gulley and sheet erosion results from farmers cultivating steep slopes without soil and water conservation, heaping and burning organic matter, and often by ploughing up and down rather than across the slopes.
The cutting of forests appears to have started in earnest some 20 or 30 years ago, often for shifting temporary cultivation, which in time became permanent. Villagers in steeper hill tracts cleared forest to grow tea, fruit trees or upland rice. The only forest left within reach of many villages is now on the hilltops. Villagers used to, and to some extent still do, collect fuelwood, bamboo, wild honey, wild turmeric, orchids, fruits and medicinal plants from forests. They have seen some tree species disappear, and many medicinal plants, usually along with the knowledge to identify and use them. Fuelwood cutting was a common source of income for the poor, but this seems to have stopped in the villages visited, since the project has provided alternative sources of income such as small livestock.
Logging, shifting cultivation, fuelwood collection and frequent burning to promote grazing have changed most forests into scrub or grassland. The overgrazing and the burning on these sites, and on many plantations, leave them dry and compacted and prone to high runoff and erosion. Much of the natural and older planted forest appears to be highly degraded, with branches and stems hacked for fuelwood, regeneration absent or stunted, and land frequently burned, eroded and gullied.
Plantations are particularly vulnerable to overgrazing, since herders purposefully select these areas to lead cattle away from cultivated land and to give them shade. The result is that plantations may in some cases be more prone to erosion than land without trees, and protecting them from grazing is a major challenge. On the other hand, these woodlots also have the potential under controlled conditions to produce a mix of wood and fodder under silvi-pastoral systems, provided stall feeding and the cutting and carrying of fodder can be encouraged. Since cut and carry is not a traditional practice this may not be possible. A less attractive alternative would be to open the woodlots for controlled grazing once the trees were well established and less vulnerable to grazing damage.
Lowland and upland rice are the main crops grown for household use. Other important crops are potato, wheat, various pulses, maize, ginger, tomato, niger and garlic and such tree crops as avocado, dog fruit (Abarema sp.), orange and jack fruit, all predominantly grown in home gardens. Traditional shifting cultivation is no longer practised in Pindaya Township, there being insufficient land. However, farmers with land in excess of about 10 acres frequently will incorporate a fallow in the rotation, partly because of labour and other input shortages and partly to improve soil fertility. The fallow period, however, can be as little as one year or a maximum of four years, which may be insufficient to have a significant impact on soil fertility restoration. During the forthcoming Phase III, if resources are available, it may be worthwhile to explore the value of fallowing as undertaken by farmers in the project area; and the possibilities of alternatives such as use of leguminous cover crops (rice bean is already being demonstrated), and agro-forestry, as part of participatory technology development. Where land is being left fallow for lack of input resources, allowing a landless household to cultivate the land could be explored.
Double cropping during the 8 to 9 months of the wet monsoon with rotations are practised extensively. Examples within flat areas between sloping land are lowland rice followed by potato or tomato or chickpea. In sloping hill areas, potato (sown April) followed by upland rice (sown late June) is a common cropping pattern. Other common patterns are rice with niger or soya bean. In the dry season, wheat, potato or niger are often grown on residual moisture in the flat valley areas at the base of sloping hill areas. Sloping fields are left fallow. Land is ploughed at the end of the rains when the soil is still easily worked. Traditionally ploughing has been up and down the slope but this practice is beginning to change, under guidance of the project, to contour ploughing.
Wheat is harvested in March; yield varies considerably but 800 kg/acre can be obtained in years of reasonable rainfall. Fertilizer is normally applied at rates of 100 kg urea/acre and 100 kg TSP/acre. In some areas, farmers apply 50 kg MOP/acre in addition. Without fertilizer use, yield per acre is about 350 kg. Yield of upland rice with fertilizer use is about 400 kg/acre, whilst for lowland paddy rice yield averages 500 kg/acre although with good management and more fertile soil, double this amount can be achieved. Farmers report that crop yields are in decline compared with 10 to 15 years ago. This decline is attributed to loss of top soil from sheet erosion and decreasing rainfall.
In the more mountainous areas of Kalaw, grain crops are hardly grown (sometimes upland rice) and land cleared from forest is cultivated with tea plantations, fruit orchards, pigeon pea and annual crops such as indian leaf ("ju" or Chinese root), ginger, potato, sugar pea and medicinal plants.
Livestock, particularly draught animals (buffalo and cattle), play an important role in the farming systems. Land preparation is almost entirely dependent on draught animal power and the manure is used to help maintain soil fertility, although there is insufficient FYM for optimum crop growth. Inorganic fertilizers must supplement it where the farmer can afford them. Other livestock include pigs and poultry. Small ruminants (sheep and goats) are uncommon. Management of FYM and compost by farmers is poor, leading to nutrient loss and reduced quality. Draught animal power (mainly buffalo for cultivation and bullocks for transportation) is always in short supply due to a lack of available grazing and crop residues. Increased cropping on marginal lands and shortened fallow has reduced the available range for animal grazing. Subsequent overgrazing by cows and calves in groups of 30 to 40, and the frequent use of fire to reduce forest and shrub to grassland, have contributed to soil erosion, loss of organic matter and damage to natural forest regeneration and young plantations.
Some large scale commercial fanning projects are being developed in Shan State for upland rice production. A commercial company makes a contract with farmers in which the company is responsible for land preparation fertilizer, seed and harvesting. The farmers are responsible for maintaining a clean crop and are given a 50 percent share in the rice harvest. Such commercial fanning is a growing trend in Myanmar.
Project interventions
Contour soil bunding
Soil erosion is a major factor in the decline of agricultural productivity in Shan State. The project provides one bag of urea for every 500 feet of trenched contour bunding. Training in this technology is provided by project staff and also by the Land Use Department of the MAS to a high standard of work. Farmers reported increased crop yields after bunding compared with adjacent non-bunded land. Yield increases for upland rice were said to be of the order of 25 percent. Several farmers were confident that contour bund construction would be continued after project exit. Certainly the project is successfully demonstrating this technology and imparting the necessary skills to the community. Contour bunding may also encourage farmers to plough and sow along the contour, rather than up-and-down the slope. This in itself would help to slow down the rate of soil erosion with little cost to the farmer. It seems very likely that farmers will continue to maintain their contour bunds so sustainability is probably ensured.
Agro-forestry
The project is introducing an agro-forestry component through the planting of multi-purpose trees, including legumes, on contour bunds, thereby intending to stabilise the bunds, improve soil and water conservation, increase soil fertility and provide fodder, fuel and poles. The project offers villagers a rather limited range of forest trees. Crab apple (Eriolobus indica) is the most highly favoured multi-purpose species for its fruit and ability to regenerate after pruning or lopping for fuelwood. Beyond this, villagers seem to care only that an offered species grows fast. They consider pine to be too slow, and one group expressed a dislike for Eucalyptus because, they said, it dries the soil and crops do not grow around it. Eucalyptus is not suitable for agroforestry where moisture for nearby crops is limiting. Melia, Cassia, Glyricidia, Erythrina and Leucaena are better options, although incidence of frost may limit their elevation range. The project should consider establishing demonstration sites for a range of different selected agro-forestry practices with a monitoring and evaluation system in place. Such participatory technology development research could include fallow management incorporating agro-forestry, for example, as a rotational component where the fallow period is of sufficient length. Optimum practices need to be identified through discussion, research and demonstration, and require a medium to long-term commitment.
Provision of fertilizers
Food security is under threat from the decline in soil fertility and farmers have insufficient organic manure to compensate. Their capacity to purchase chemical fertilizers is low because of the high cost of fertilizer and the high cost of credit from money lenders. Fertilizer grants-in-kind are provided to FIGGs for the establishment of revolving funds through the provision of loans-in-kind to farmers. Training in fertilizer application is provided by the project. Each farmer receives fertilizer for one acre of land, the value of which must be paid back after crop harvest. While this does not provide for all a farmer's fertilizer needs, it helps to reduce the dependence on local moneylenders. Provided the FIGG revolving fund can be maintained and increased, the distribution of fertilizer can be sustainable after project exit. There is a need for simple fertilizer trials to be established in combination with manure and compost. Since project staff are already working at full capacity, such work may require contracting to national specialists or international institutes.
Horticulture (vegetables and fruit trees)
The project has helped to improve home gardens through the introduction of new vegetable varieties and training. Fruit tree seedlings, including improved grafted species, have been provided (avocado, dog fruit, mango, orange, lime, coffee, and tea). These will help to increase income from surplus sales and improve family nutrition. Through the training of farmers in the production of fruit seedlings (including grafting where appropriate) the project has equipped selected farmers to continue the technology transfer after the end of the project. These interventions are replicable outside the project through sales of nursery produce.
Compost making
Villagers are taught to make compost heaps out of leaves, grasses and organic residues. This activity helps to improve soil fertility and organic matter content. It is an appropriate activity but at a materials cost of K. 2,500 it is unlikely to be replicable in other villages without some form of support.
Green manuring
The project is encouraging the adoption of green manuring of fallow land by providing fertilizer and rice bean through the FIGG revolving fund. Both composting and green manuring are crucial to the sustainable development of agriculture, given the low organic content of soils and the high price of chemical fertilizers. Green manuring is an intervention which would benefit from further on-farm research trials during the Phase in. There is also a need to identify and test a range of legumes for suitability not only as cover crops on fallow land but also as relay crops within the major food and cash crops (e.g. maize and wheat), as green manures, food or fodders.
Land transfer
The project has initiated the transfer of land from large holdings to landless people with payment in fertilizer being made by the project. These transfers have been legalised. This project initiative is helping to bring about greater equity in land distribution, albeit on a relatively small scale. However, it is unlikely, that continued land transfers will be sustainable or replicable for such small payments after project exit.
Livestock
Pig breeding and fattening
Pig breeding and fattening for sale have been very successful and popular income-generating activities. A number of high standard breeding units (managed by household groups) have been established and these supply weaners to farmers and landless persons for fattening. Marketing of fattened pigs is not a problem as there is good local demand and also an export market to China. It is important that economic analyses be undertaken as soon as sufficient quantitative data becomes available. If project officers are not available due to pressure of other work, an agro-economist should be contracted to undertake this investigation. Provided appropriate veterinary care remains available, the breeding units should be sustainable after project withdrawal. However, the high cost of establishing a unit makes it unlikely that replication outside of the project can take place without financial assistance.
Poultry
The main form of poultry production undertaken through the FIGG is commercial egg production. Commercial layers consist of flocks of 50 - 200 birds. These units are well housed and the project provides good technical back-up. Government is now in a position to provide improved Newcastle disease vaccine. Analysis shows that these units can be profitable but that this profit is very sensitive to the egg production rate which is itself dependent on good standards of husbandry, water availability, quality feed and effective health coverage. Poultry farmers were enthusiastic and confident that they could maintain profitable production in the absence of project back-up. Local marketing can be a problem and some producers are having to locate markets some distance away from production sites. Investment costs for this activity are quite high and it is unlikely to be replicated outside the project area by the small farmer, particularly in the current absence of commercial loan facilities.
Draught animals and fodder
Draught animals (buffalo and oxen) are essential components to farming in the Shan State for soil cultivation and transportation. In most villages there is a shortage of draught power, resulting in either delayed ploughing and sowing or in land being left in fallow. While many villages have large cow populations, in addition to draught oxen, there is a reluctance to use cows for draught purposes for fear of adversely affecting the reproductive cycle. The project is helping to overcome the shortage of draught power by providing buffalo and oxen through the FIGG with interest-free repayment over five years. As there is barely sufficient grazing and fodder for the existing herds, it is essential that draught power interventions are accompanied by training in the improved use of crop residues and the growing of high yield quality fodders, such as Napier grass, around the house and on contour bunds. The growing of good quality natural grasses in community forestry plantations should also be encouraged for cut-and-carry or for managed grazing (after the trees have sufficiently matured). Assuming that some degree of early protection can be achieved to allow proper establishment, the potential exists to increase fodder production in the forests by spacing trees more openly and introducing legumes and improved grass species. However, cutting and carrying fodder is not a traditional practice; labour is in short supply, sources of fodder are often far from the villages and it is much easier to graze cattle freely. The alternative could be to open up community forests for controlled grazing on a trial basis once the naturally regenerated or planted trees are well established after, say, five to ten years. Neither pine nor eucalyptus plantations are favoured for this practice; pine drops a heavy layer of needles which acidify the soil, and eucalyptus too efficiently captures available soil nutrients and moisture. Natural forest containing gaps and openings would be best suited for a tree/pasture combination. Small-scale farmer trials could be established to evaluate different fodders and new cultivars, perhaps through contracting an outside institution to do the work. Urea-molasses nutrient blocks, currently being tested by the Dry Zone project, would be a worthwhile technology to introduce to the Southern Shan, if they prove successful in the current trials.
FYM in sheltered pits
While the collection of FYM is traditional in Shan State, the quality is poor because of nutrient loss. The project provides materials for livestock owners to construct shelters over manure pits. Current cost is about K. 1000. It is possible that this activity can continue after project exit if farmers conclude that there is a real benefit to their crops.
Para-vet training programme
The project is establishing its own para-vet programme, providing selected persons with one-week training, followed by a six-weeks apprenticeship with the Township Veterinary Officer. This is an activity which should be sustainable after project exit as farmers are willing to pay for veterinary services and indications are that the Government Veterinary Department is likely to be supportive. It would be an advantage if the para-vets were also trained in fodder production and livestock nutrition since these are topics closely related to animal health.
Community Forestry
In all the Townships of the project there appears to be considerable potential for community forestry. As in the Dry Zone, the project is facilitating the hand-over of degraded forest lands to community groups under the 1995 Community Forestry Instruction. None of the land set aside for community forestry in Shan State is Reserve Forest land under Forest Department control, which means a lengthier and more complex process to rationalise different and often conflicting land uses. Despite this, a number of lease certificates have been issued. Among the species planted in community forests in Shan are Acacia auriculiformis, Eucalyptus grandis, Eucalyptus toreliana, Leucaena leucocephala, Cassia spectabolis, Pinus cassia and fruit tree species. User groups expect that with reasonable protection the forests could provide them with a wide range of material needs; fodder, pasture, fuelwood (at present most fuelwood comes from other sources), poles, small timbers and medicinal plants.
User groups are reported to be more environmentally aware now than in the previous phase of the project, and to more readily see the potential benefits of forest protection. The long involvement of previous FAO-executed projects, the previous phases of the HDI, a sincere and hardworking project staff, close collaboration with the Forest Department, and the relative stability and cohesion of the communities, are positive elements for the sustainability of community forestry. On the other hand, sustainability is constrained by the relatively short duration of the project, the absence of group savings and a user group fund to meet contingencies, legal uncertainty, a lack of clear benefits at present from community forestry (which can affect people's commitment to participation), and the problems associated with the protection of the forest against grazing, fire, and the encroachment of outsiders. During the first plantation year the project makes a small incentive payment (in bags of fertilizer) to guards, but thereafter group members must assume responsibility for protection. With the exception of nursery management and stove making, the involvement of women in community forestry, especially in the various committees, is considered to be limited.
The project is currently developing formats and procedures for forest management plans, but the technical base for prescribing silvicultural and management regimes is weak. The project has not yet documented its approach beyond the definition of a number of basic steps to be taken to implement community forestry. Little or no data exists on tree growth and yield, upon which future management decisions rest. There is a clear need to build up such knowledge, and a need to develop extension materials. The Community Forestry Instruction is used to guide the project and Forest Department staff in implementing community forestry, but the instruction itself is unclear on aspects of tenure, harvesting and utilization. Villagers assume at this stage that eventual produce and revenues of non-timber products will go towards communal events or needs, and that any sale of timber will require Forest Department approval and some payment of royalty. Groups have so far been trained in plantation establishment, but some now express the wish for training in the longer-term management and use of plantations.
Fuel-efficient stoves
The total number of A1 -stoves distributed in the five Townships is 60,780, including stoves distributed during the previous project phases. The project has initiated the production of A1-stoves in one village in Kalaw Township and two villages in Nyaungshwe. Stove making is organized through the FIGG. Fuelwood savings are reported to be 40 percent.
Participatory technology development, extension and training
The project has undertaken a number of demonstrations using improved seeds and different cropping techniques such as double cropping/rotation (e.g. soybean-wheat, soybean-niger, groundnut-niger, lowland rice-tomato, maize-wheat), mixed cropping (e.g. upland rice with maize, upland rice with pigeon pea, ginger with chili) and intercropping (fruit trees with peas and beans). These initiatives are part of a new programme in participatory technology development. It would certainly be worthwhile to further expand the programme to include greater use of legumes (food, fodder, green manure) as relay crops within the main crops. It is essential that the project finds the resources to properly monitor such trials and demonstrations and to evaluate the results so that as much quantified information can be obtained. Under present staffing conditions this may mean that contracts will have to be drawn up with outside specialists or institutes. Farmers in all project areas have expressed an interest in participating in their agricultural development. For future sustainability, it is important that they be fully involved in this kind of farmer-based, field-level, participatory research and development activity.
The project has established an effective extension network that has been able to deliver agricultural and livestock packages to the rural communities with appropriate technology transfer. However, the staff are under extreme pressure with five Townships and many villages to cover. No more than basic training has been provided but there is now a need for more intensive training and the transfer of technical skills and knowledge. This should be part of the consolidation which should take place during the coming Phase in. It is important that the project can find the resources to undertake this process of consolidation, if necessary by re-allocating budgets previously earmarked for expansion.
As in the other projects, the sustainability of the extension network after project termination must be in doubt, with conditions as they now are. It is important that the project continue to seek for ways to continue support to extension after termination.
* Environmentally Sustainable Food Security and Micro Income Opportunities in the Ayeryarwady (Mangrove) Delta.5 Based on visits to villages in Laputta and Bogalay Townships
Introduction
In the first phase of the HDI Programme (January 1994 to September 1996) the FAO project covered two Townships, Bogalay and Laputta. In the second phase (October 1996 to present) the project area was expanded by the inclusion of Mawlamyinegyun Township. The total area of the project is some 6,780 km2. Population density, at 128 persons per km2 is one of the highest in the country. Because of this high population density, and the limited availability of land in non-saline areas more than 50 percent of the households are landless. The environment of the mangrove delta of the Ayeyarwady is under threat due to the shrinking of the forest cover which has occurred during the past five decades.
In 1991, the World Bank estimated that charcoal consumption in the Ayeyarwady division and in Yangon was four times more than the delta forests could sustain. Concern finally prompted the government to ban charcoal cutting in 1993 although there is still pressure to clear forest on the northern fringes of tracts which still remaining in the southern delta. Landsat imagery of 1995 shows that Laputta and Bogalay Townships, which both had over 50 percent forest coverage in the 1970s, now have only 5.8 percent and 19.5 percent of their land area forested, while Mawlamyinegyun recorded no forest cover. A certain amount of natural erosion and accumulation is expected in any delta environment, but the removal of the protective mangrove forests from shorelines and the increased wave action from boat traffic have exacerbated the problem on shorelines and channel banks. On many channels, the boundaries of paddy fields are being constantly eaten away and the infrastructure of shoreline villages gradually destroyed.
The institutionalized destruction of the mangrove forests, the life blood of the delta, started in 1942, when hundreds of tons of timber and fuelwood were sent daily to Yangon for military purposes. Large-scale cutting of fuelwood to meet government quotas started around 1951, then turned to charcoal making with the energy crisis of the early 1970s. By 1972 there were an estimated 2,000 charcoal camps in the region. Paddy cultivation followed in the wake of the charcoal cutting. An estimated 40 percent of the Bogalay and 70 percent of the Laputta Township populations migrated into the delta to seek job opportunities during the charcoal era.
Cleared mangrove forest land was originally fertile for paddy cultivation, but crop yields in the low-lying brackish and saline zones have steadily declined because of increasing salinization, acidification and nutrient depletion. A saline environment is essential for healthy mangrove forest, but the inundation and leaching of salt water into fields can have a devastating effect on agricultural crops. Keeping a mangrove forest barrier between tidal waters and fields lessens the problem, since mangrove species absorb both salinity and acid (as well as protect against erosion). In most cases, however, such barriers have long since disappeared.
In all three sub-zones of the Delta agriculture is based on a wet monsoon paddy rice farming system, transplanted from nurseries in June and July and harvested in November and December. This system dates from the 1850s when the British annexed Burma and began to develop the Delta area for rice production. Forest trees, including large areas of mangroves, have since then been systematically cleared both for charcoal production and rice. The cleared areas are used for rice or remain as degraded forest. In the most southern areas of the Delta, rice production on the cleared land has declined due to increased salinisation of soils.
The traditional local rice was replaced by the Department of Agriculture in the 1980s but since then there has been little attempt to continue the upgrading of varieties. Farmers must save seed from the present crop to sow in the next wet season. Farmers have several different rice varieties, depending on use of the rice by the household. Thus one variety is sown for fulfilment of the government crop quota (about 12 baskets or 240 kgs) and for sale at the market, and another variety for home consumption. In some limited areas, where there is deep flooding, a deep water variety is used. About 250 kg of rice per adult per year is required for food security.
The seeding rate for wet monsoon paddy is 40 to 60 kg/acre (transplanted seedlings). Such seeding rates seem to be excessive. Average yield of paddy race is around 850 kg/acre. One bag of urea is said to increase yield by 200 to 250 kg/acre. In one village, four bags of urea were said to be the optimum application rate for paddy, yet farmers seldom apply this rate. In several villages, it was remarked that rice yields were in decline. Average landholding per household is also in decline due to population increase. In one village it was reported that over a twenty year period, the average farm size had decreased by about 60 percent.
During the dry season period (December to May), so-called "summer" paddy can be grown where farmers have access to irrigation water. Due to lack of such facilities, only a small percentage of land is so cropped. A short season rice variety (100 to 115 days) is used. The yield can be higher than wet monsoon paddy, where irrigation and fertilizer are available due to the more favourable climatic conditions. When urea (3 bags) and TSP (1 bag) are applied a yield of about 2100 kg/acre can be obtained. Seed is broadcast at a rate of 80 to 100 kg/acre, which would seem to be unnecessarily high but is done partly to combat weeds. The viability of short season seed is limited and farmers must multiply seed during the intervening wet monsoon. In the brackish water ecological sub-zone, dry-season crop production is generally not possible due to the salt content of the water.
Other crops grown, normally as individual trees or in small plots close to the household include vegetables (e.g. snake gourd, bottle gourd, bitter gourd, eggplant, beans of various kinds and chili), mango, lime, guava, bananas, paw-paw, betelnut and coconut. Land in the home gardens and elsewhere within the village household area is often not efficiently utilised and lack of tree management results in dense overhead canopies restricting light penetration.
With the destruction of mangrove forests, loss of employment income and declining paddy yields, the Delta's population, wealthy and poor alike, has increasingly turned to fisheries as the second most available natural resource in the region. Most landless people now depend on fishing, and the poorest rely on catching mud crabs. Many people spend their lives moving from village to village fishing and crabbing, some even living on boats throughout the year.
Strong evidence points to declining fishery stocks. The first contributing factor is likely to be the loss and degradation of mangrove forest, which provides shelter, feed (leaf debris) and breeding grounds for diatoms, phyto- and zoo-plankton and crustaceans; all vital elements in the food chain offish, prawn and crab. The second factor is over-fishing as increasing numbers of villagers, especially the poor, turn to fishing or crabbing as their only means of income or to supplement income. In addition to the increased numbers of nets, the breaking of regulations, use of larger nets and smaller mesh size, destructive fishing methods, and lack of Fishery Department control contribute to the decline in stocks. However, villagers themselves see potential in cage and small-scale pond aquaculture as an alternative source of income, but lack the required knowledge and resources to undertake the activity. Considerable scope exists for the project to develop these enterprises, especially in the brackish and saline zones of the lower Delta where agriculture has less potential.
Project interventions
Provision of fertilizers
Through the FIGG, farmers have access to limited supplies of fertilizer. Urea is available for the seedling nurseries of monsoon paddy, and Urea, TSP and Muriate of Potash for the summer (dry season) paddy. Without fertilizer use, one acre of monsoon paddy will yield about 500 to 600 kg rice, while summer paddy will give about 800 to 900 kg. With fertilizer inputs (2 bags Urea, 1 bag TSP and 0.5 bag MOP), monsoon paddy will yield about 1200 to 1500 kg rice per acre, while summer paddy gives 2000 to 2500 kg per acre. However, except for some use on summer paddy, most farmers cannot afford to apply fertilizer. Over the past five years, fertilizer prices have risen by over 300 percent. Fertilizer use is increasingly moving beyond the reach of the small farmer.
Seed and seedling distribution
Through the community-based organisations the project has supplied a range of improved seeds and seedlings to the small farmers and the landless. This has included paddy rice, vegetables and mungbean seed, banana suckers, betel, chili, flower seedlings, and fruit seedlings such as guava, mango and holland lime. These have provided, and will continue to generate, valuable income and improved nutrition for households. Most of these interventions which are low cost will be sustainable and replicable. Gross margin analysis for chili, groundnut and green gram show that these are profitable cash crops despite high production costs. Production of low-cost ornamental foliage is also profitable. There would seem to be considerable scope for the further development of ornamental flower crops although the quality of available local seed is presently poor.
There is need for more technical knowledge transfer to be undertaken in several areas such as vegetable growing, fruit tree pruning and more appropriate management of the multi-layered home gardens to increase productivity as well as the range of plants being grown.
Power tillers and irrigation pumps
Through the FIGG, the project has supplied a number of power tillers for paddy field cultivation, and irrigation pumps for use in the dry season. One tiller can cultivate 50 acres of land per season compared to 10 acres for a pair of oxen. The pumps have enabled farmers to irrigate large areas of summer paddy and vegetable crops such as chili and mung beans. Each pump can irrigate about 30 acres per season. The provision of fuel and seeds to the landless, has enabled them to cultivate summer paddy on otherwise unutilized land. In freshwater zones, there is considerable potential for enhancing income and food security through the irrigation of high ground areas. However, the investment cost for a pump is high and without access to external credit facilities it is unlikely that the smaller farmer will be able to replicate this valuable intervention after project termination. The Myanmar Agricultural and Rural Development Bank will provide loans for equipment but the potential borrower must be able to provide a minimum of 30 percent of the total cost. This loan facility, therefore, will only be available to the richer farmers. There is considerable demand from farmers for further training in the maintenance and repair of farm equipment.
Livestock
Pig breeding and fattening
These are popular and successful income generating activities undertaken by farmers and landless persons and women. Most households can care for only one or two pigs at a time. Some women form small groups to manage five or six pigs. Marketing is not a problem at present as many traders visit the villages. There is local demand and an export trade to Yangon. Indications are that pig breeding and rearing can be profitable enterprises but sustainability and replication in following years will depend on further credit being available from the FIGG, or a farmer having cash which has been generated from some other enterprise. This illustrates how essential it is for livestock development that the FIGG revolving funds remain sustainable and increase in value in future years so that farmers can continue to have access to them.
While most breeding is undertaken through single sows owned by individual households, the project is also establishing breeding units to be managed by groups of households. One such newly established unit has two boars and 15 sows. The initial investment cost was about K. 400,000 with repayment over three years.
Poultry and ducks
Small-scale chicken and duck farming for egg and meat production have been encouraged by the project and duck farming is particularly popular as there are fewer disease problems. In Mawlamyingyun Township, a duckling nursery has recently been established with an investment cost of about K. 380,000. Initially this seems to be a profitable business but the long-term sustainability of such an enterprise without access to further capital must be in question. The maintenance of a high survival rate will be of the utmost importance. Such an enterprise is unlikely to be replicated outside the project by the small to medium sized farmers or by landless households.
Draught animals
Shortage of draught power is a major problem in the Delta. It has been estimated that, for Bogalay Township alone, there is a short fall of about 4,400 animals or 500 power tillers to ensure timely land preparation and sowing for monsoon and summer paddy production. The project has provided over 90 draught animals to farmers which helps to overcome the power shortage at the local level but cannot hope to impact on the global situation for the Delta. It would be worthwhile for the project to review the experience of the Dry Zone project in the local production of urea-molasses mineral blocks for livestock feed, with the aim of their possible introduction to the Delta. It may also be worthwhile to organise an evaluation of urea-treated rice straw for improved digestibility and protein content.
FYM and composting
The project has undertaken farmer training in improved compost making through the mixing of FYM with other organic matter and incorporating EM in pits or mounds. The use of EM enables good quality compost to be prepared in two to three weeks compared to up to three months without EM. Farmers use compost on rice paddy and home gardens. Farmers have reported improved colour, ear set and straw length for rice crops when compost is applied even at modest rates such as 10 to 12 baskets per acre. However, these reports are anecdotal and no quantitative yield statistics have been collected. This is an activity that can be sustainable as EM is locally available and there are reports of non-project farmers replicating improved compost manufacture.
Wild fisheries
Present fishing pressure on wild fish stocks is probably not sustainable, at least not in the inland waters near villages. It is therefore questionable whether the project should continue to support wild fishery activities. In the last quarter of 1998, it provided 151 nets (of types beach seine, gill, skimming, fence, cast, floating, halsa and croker), as well as 112 crab traps and 127 canoes. Although these inputs provide immediate sources of income for the poor, project focus should now be directed away from wild fishery and more towards small-scale aquaculture.
Aquaculture
Cage, pen and small-scale pond culture for crabs, prawn, tilapia, carp, sea bass and snakehead have high potential in the Delta environment (freshwater, brackish and saline zones), and the project has successfully introduced these into communities in all three Townships. Particularly impressive is a system (termed 'silvi-pisci-culture') for raising prawns, crabs and fish in trenches around small islands of planted mangrove forest that gives them all the natural environmental benefits of shade, shelter and leaf detritus for micro-organisms in the food chain.
The technology for producing seed of prawn and crab does not yet exist locally, so ponds have to be stocked with captured wild seed. Seed in the wild has an extremely low survival rate, which justifies its use in aquaculture, where its survival can be as high as 90 percent. Wild seed is becoming less available, however, as a result of today's intense fishing pressure. Project staff estimate that the possible daily catch has declined over the last 10 years from 20,000 or 30,000 tiger prawn seed per day to 1,000 to 2,000 per day. The restoration of mangrove forest should greatly improve this situation.
Community forestry
The project introduced the concept of community forest management during the its first phase, 1994 to 1996. Beneficiary communities have been made aware of the relationship between forest destruction and many of the problems which they face, such as declining fish catches, eroding channel banks, salinization of land and decreasing paddy yields. The project's forestry focus is appropriately on the southern saline and brackish areas of the delta, while concentrating more on agriculture and livestock in the freshwater zone further north. Two types of community forestry management practices are promoted by the project to restore the mangroves; plantations for the barren areas and regeneration and improvement felling in the degraded areas.
As in Shan State and the Dry Zone, the project uses the 1995 Community Forest Instruction to help the landless and the poor acquire usage rights over tracts of natural or planted forests. Most of these tracts are cleared or degraded forest reserve lands under direct Forest Department control, which greatly facilitates the leasing process.
Laputta Township has more forest land per capita than has Bogalay, and this has enabled larger and more contiguous tracts of forest to be allocated to communities. In Laputta the Forest Department agreed to sub-divide community forests among individual households at about 5 acres each. This was not possible in Bogalay where the smaller more fragmented tracts are assigned to the management of communities as a whole. Under the Bogalay model benefit sharing will be based on each household's relative level of participation, a requirement which calls for a detailed accounting of each member's time. It can be expected that the Laputta model will work better than that of Bogalay, due to the individual household ownership responsibility (and benefits) and the less cumbersome administration.
The formal start of community forestry in the Delta was marked by the handover by the Forest Department of thirty-year lease certificates to 20 user groups in Laputta in August 1998. The certificates covered some 8,800 acres of community forest, while an additional 10,000 acres have been surveyed as proposed community forests in Laputta and Bogalay A start has been made on the preparation of management plans for the community forest areas handed over in Laputta. In terms of revolving fund support, the community forestry user groups have access to the general welfare fund through the Village Development Committee, and this provides the initial fund for their use. Eventually, funds for the forestry user group will develop with the availability of income from thinnings and harvest yield.
The project is serving primarily as a catalyst in the community forestry process; creating forest awareness, preparing guidelines, seeking clarification of rights and obligations and empowering user groups to understand these. The sustainability and replicability of community forestry will depend not only on user group performance but also on the severe limitations of Forest Department staff and the budgetary resources needed to demarcate land, to prepare management plans, and to monitor and administer the programme. User groups will have to learn how to regulate eventual harvest levels to avoid cutting too deeply into forest capital. They will be looking to the Forest Department for this kind of technical advice, but the Department itself has little or no growth data or mangrove management experience on which to base such decisions, and it lacks the resources for necessary research.
Forest protection
The impressive growth and density of mangrove plantations and natural regeneration attests to the potential for restoring forests in this region. If properly protected and managed, these forests promise to be a major source of future income for user groups. Protecting forests in the early years is easier in the Delta than in the Dry Zone or Shan State because there are not the hazards of fire and heavy grazing pressure. However, some groups in Laputta have already had to deal with outsiders cutting trees or encroaching into community forests. Protecting these forests is likely to become more difficult as they grow and become more valuable.
Sustainability of community forestry
The project has instilled an awareness and enthusiasm in the community groups and there are obvious signs of increased regeneration and growth of mangrove plantations and forests now under protection. However, under present circumstances the replicability and sustainability of community forestry must be a reason for concern, given that:
I. no significant return on labour can be expected for several years;II. the basis for future management is technically weak;
III. restored forests will become increasingly difficult to protect from outside timber cutters as they grow and gain in value;
IV. the poorest members of user groups may not be able to meet their obligations for labour input or money to pay assigned guards and;
V. the success of community forestry rests on the Forest Department's extremely limited staff and resources to survey, collect data, plan, technically advise and monitor the programme.
Fuel-efficient stoves
The project has distributed fuel-efficient stoves intended to reduce the pressure on forest resources. In the Delta, 5,800 A-1 stoves and 4,881 rice husk stoves have been distributed. It has been estimated that the use of these stoves could save up to 570 acres of forest annually.
Participatory technology development, extension and training
The project has recently introduced a number of PTD trials and demonstrations in the three Townships, including evaluation of a hybrid summer rice variety (Simar), herbicides in rice, new varieties of mung bean and sesame and new livestock interventions. This is an excellent move as PTD is an essential component of sustainable agriculture development and, moreover, it is warmly welcomed by farmers. Indeed, a number of farmers expressed the wish for more such work to be undertaken in their villages and for appropriate training, including study tours to government research institutes. It is essential that project staff receive training in on-farm participatory research, including the laying out of simple trials, data collection and analysis. However, it is unlikely that the present staffing levels will be sufficient to carry out a meaningful PTD programme (given that a large expansion of target beneficiaries is also envisaged in the proposed Phase III). If additional qualified staff cannot be recruited, then contracts for the PTD programme should be made with outside persons or institutes.
The project has established an effective extension network that reaches from senior project technical staff down to village grass-roots level. However, staffing numbers are low and it is a tribute to their dedication and hard work that they have been able to achieve so much. The "cutting edge" of the extension network is the CLEW of which each Township has ten. Each CLEW therefore has responsibility for several villages. The CLEWs have been recruited from the Village Extension Workers (VEWs) of the First Phase and provided with technical upgrading through the provision of additional training. To assist the CLEWs, each village has usually five voluntary VEWs, two women and three men. Monthly extension workshops are held at township, or occasionally at village, level for CLEWs, VEWs, leaders from the various CBOs and interested farmers. Informal training is also undertaken by senior staff, CLEWs and VEWs in the field. Staff and farmers participate in regular study tours. Although good work is being undertaken, there is no doubt that, as in the other two projects, staff members are over-extended and are working under conditions of considerable difficulty. There is need for more senior technical staff, for more in-depth training and more contacts with outside institutions to gain experience, skills and knowledge.
