Context
1. Geography and Demographics
Covering an area of approximately 676,578 sq. km, the Republic of the Union of Myanmar is the largest country in mainland in Southeast Asia, with a population of around 57 million and rich ethnic, linguistic and cultural diversity. Myanmar relies heavily on agriculture as a backbone of the economy and a key source of livelihoods for rural communities.
2. Economic Setbacks
Despite its abundant natural resources and diverse ecosystems, Myanmar continues to face severe economic setback driven by prolonged conflict, political instability, market disruptions, currency depreciation, disrupted trade and supply chains. According to World Bank projections, Myanmar’s GDP is expected to contract by 2.5 percent in fiscal year 2025/26, while inflation is projected to remain above 20 percent. More than half of the population now lives below the poverty line.
3. Food Security and Nutrition
An estimated 12.4 million people are expected to need emergency food production and agriculture assistance in 2026. Poor dietary diversity, declining livelihood opportunities, and reduced agricultural production continue to negatively affect nutrition outcomes, particularly among women and children.
4. Agricultural Challenges
Myanmar’s agriculture sector continues to face significant challenges due to rising production costs and limited access to agricultural inputs. The continued depreciation of the Kyat has sharply increased the cost of imported fertilizers, fuel, agrochemicals, and quality seeds, further undermining agricultural recovery, food production, and rural livelihoods.
5. Disaster Risks and Climate Shocks
As one of the most disaster-prone countries in Southeast Asia, Myanmar frequently experiences floods, cyclones, droughts, landslides, saline water intrusion, riverbank erosion, disease and pest outbreaks, and other extreme weather events. Flooding alone accounts for approximately 11 percent of all natural hazards and affects more than two million people annually leading to crop losses, livestock mortality, degradation of natural resources, damage to rural infrastructure, and displacement of vulnerable populations. With agriculture heavily dependent on climate and weather conditions, recurring disasters continue to undermine food production, rural livelihoods, ecosystems, and economic stability across the country. Food security and nutrition conditions have further deteriorated due to the combined impacts of economic instability, displacement, conflict, climate-related shocks, and global market volatility.
FAO operation in Myanmar
FAO operations in Myanmar are guided by the following three key priority areas outlined in the FAO Country Programming Framework for Myanmar (2017- 2027). These priorities are designed to address the most pressing challenges affecting food security, livelihoods, and sustainable rural development.
Priority Area I
Enhanced food security, nutrition, and food safety.
Priority Area II
Strengthened community-based governance and sustainable management of land, forest, water resources and ecosystems
Priority Area III
Enhanced resilience of local communities and farming households to multiple risks of natural and humanitarian disasters, conflict, climate change and transboundary and infectious diseases.
With its mandate to support food security, nutrition and resilient livelihoods through the transformation to a more efficient, inclusive, and sustainable agrifood system, FAO puts a strong focus on smallholder farmers and vulnerable communities. Interventions are designed to respond to Myanmar people’s evolving needs, helping them improve production and productivity, while restoring and protecting natural resources, strengthen their resilience to climate change, disasters and conflict-related shocks, and promote inclusive and sustainable rural development. FAO emphasizes integrating humanitarian assistance and resilience building to support communities in transitioning from dependency on relief to sustainable recovery and long-term development aligned with the humanitarian–development–peace nexus.
FAO’s cross-cutting areas include capacity development, gender equality and women empowerment, social inclusion, youth engagement, multi-risk resilience building and One Health to ensure that interventions are inclusive, impactful, sustainable, and aligned with international standards. FAO maintains strict adherence to Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) and Grievance Redress Mechanisms (GRM), while ensuring environmental and social safeguards to minimize harm.
FAO implements its programmes through a decentralized field presence and strong partnerships with national and international NGOs, civil society organizations (CSO), and community-based organizations (CBOs). This approach enables timely delivery, context-specific programming, and effective access to hard-to-reach areas, while building capacities of local NGOs, CSOs and CBOs and ensuring that local knowledge and community priorities are reflected in programme design and implementation.
Operations are supported by robust systems for risk management, monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning (MEAL), third-party monitoring, and Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP). These systems ensure quality assurance, transparency, and adaptive management, enabling FAO to deliver effective and principled assistance in complex and evolving contexts.
Myanmar : Key Facts and Figures
57 million
people live in Myanmar, the largest country in mainland Southeast Asia
12.4 million
people projected to need emergency food production and agriculture assistance in 2026
28 million
people affected annually by flooding, accounting for 11% of all natural hazards
source : HNRP 2026