Myanmar farmers face hurdles

Yangon

DRESSED in Chelsea football shorts and a wide-brimmed hat, Than Tun toils away in his paddy field on the outskirts of Yangon, sweat pouring down his sinewy arms.

Gruelling work that once helped Myanmar become the world's largest rice exporter is today a Herculean and often lonely job for farmers striving to return the impoverished nation to its former grain prowess.

"No one comes here and asks about the difficulties we face," the 40-year-old tells AFP during his break, citing voracious insects, crumbling irrigation channels and greedy middlemen as just some of the challenges preventing him making a profit.

For much of the early 20th century Myanmar was Asia's rice bowl. But after a nominally socialist junta seized power in 1962, decades of mismanagement shattered the agriculture industry in a nation where 70 per cent of inhabitants still live in the countryside. The quasi-civilian reformist government, which took over from the military in 2011, is determined to resurrect the country's reputation as a rice producer. But rotting stocks, creaking infrastructure, heavily indebted farmers and minimal foreign investment are among the hurdles it faces. Yet many economists believe that helping farmers like Mr Than Tun offers Myanmar one of…