Myanmar, Burma, agriculture, products, beans, butter beans, kenaf, kidney beans,
black eye beans, bamboo beans, red beans, mung beans, Peas, pigeon.

- Agriculture is the main industry  in Myanmar,

once Myanmar's agriculture industry was the biggest rice exporter in Asia, but agriculture broke down after the former regimes try to experiment with communist / socialist ideas.

All Myanmar agriculture business related and most of other businesses and industries broke down because of this and until now there was only a very little advance because the main agriculture structures from before are still in operation.

Plus last but not least the Myanmar agriculture business is totally in the hand of Indian trading companies who completely cornered the market and make huge profits together with their counterparts in India, this is still a legacy of British colonial times when also all the agriculture business was dominated by Indians.

The reason is simple, the English allowed them to dominate the market, the English made huge money via licensing and bribing, well and we have exactly this problem up to now.

It is not to far fetched to conclude that one of the real problem of present day Myanmar was the behavior of the British colonialists who destroyed what was function locally and streamlined everything to fit their purpose. After they run away like a thief in the night and left the mess with the Myanmar's. Today the Brits try again to tell the Myanmar's what they should do. But luckily the Myanmar's don't listen to the old colonist who just preach nonsense the whole time anyway.

All the agriculture alluvial land of favorable elevation and quality is laid out in level rice-fields. Where the rainfall is ample-fifty inches and upwards portions of the diluvia land’s soil can be utilized in the same way by merely saving the surface-water.

In agriculture regions of lighter rainfall, in a few localities, such land is brought under rice by help of irrigation and if need be by terracing as well. The agriculture rice-fields are bordered by low turfy mounds (kazin) about a cubit high, to keep in the water.

- These regular rice-lands form large parts of Myanmar, the rest being practically irreclaimable, mainly mountain.

Other areas of the Myanmar agriculture alluvial plains (kwin) are flooded from three to ten feet deep in the rains. They are full with elephant-grass (kaing) and studded through with silk-cotton trees and a few other species. The lowest levels in the kwin form shallow lagoons which dry up in the hot season. Dry-season crops like ­sugar-cane (which is also grown on the wet system), maize, lentils, and vegetables for a limited market—are obtained in the kaing.

Myanmar was once the rice-mart of the world but communists ruined the country . The wet or staple agriculture cultivation of the whole Myanmar begins between June and August, as soon as the grass-sod which has formed on the rice-fields in the by-season and which has served for pasture in the interval has got thoroughly water-logged.

The Myanmar agriculture soil is then turned, about six inches deep, with a plough bearing a shoe of bronze or iron. Where elephants are available a large ton is used which does the work of four ploughs. The clods left by the plough arc broken fine, and the wet soil worked into slush by herds of buffaloes driven round and round in the fields. If there are not enough cattle, the plough-clods are worked down with harrows drawn by buffaloes or oxen.

During a great part of the Myanmar agriculture year there is no work for the buffaloes, as they are of little service for wheel-draught ; then they are left to roam at large. They frequent the streams and lagoons, where they are followed by egrets and crows, which pick the worms out of the mud as the buffaloes turn over in their wallow.

While Myanmar agriculture crops are standing, cattle have to be kept in pens at night, and herds have to watch them by day. This work is d one by children from twelve years upwards. The buffalo-pen is made near the house, if possible in a water-logged spot where the animals can wallow in the mud, which protects them from -the bites of gad-flies and mosquitoes. Where there is no wallow, smoky fires have to be made to keep the insects away.

In certain Myanmar agriculture localities of the delta cattle have to be protected with curtains. In the arid region fodder has to be grown for the cattle, but goats find pasture and are kept for their milk.

The Myanmar agriculture  rice-fields first ploughed and ready are sown broad-cast for nur­series (fiyo-gin). A month later, when the rice-plants are about a foot high, they are taken up and trans­planted into the prepared fields, a span apart. The roots are simply pressed down into the soft slush with the fingers or with a forked stick. The acre produces thirty to eighty bushels of grain, according to soil and season.

The Myanmar agriculture ripe corn stands three to five feet high, and so thick as to keep down tares. Unlike hill-rice which requires several heavy weedings in the season, the wet rice-fields need no care beyond that of regulating the water-supply. Where there is drainage for the water, it is allowed to stand only a few inches high on the ground.

Myanmar agriculture rice field

As tee grain ripens, the soil is allowed to dry. If there is a head of water available during the rains, channels are led to the fields to keep the supply equal. If the supply is near and only at a slightly lower level than the fields, the effects of drought are counteracted by various devices such as the ka-hnwe. Running water at too low a level to lay on to the fields is utilized by help of a bamboo water-wheel (jut), or if the water be still, the wheel is driven by ox-gear. In some parts, Myanmar agriculture rice is planted on the river banks as the floods begin to subside. The varieties of rice, of which there are many, suited to different soils and modes of cultivation, take from three to five months to mature. The Myanmar agriculture harvest of the crops is from October to December, according to the variety and time of planting out. When the grain turns yellow, flights of parakeets and other birds descend on the crops, from which they have to be scared till reaping-time. Bamboo clappers are worked by bast lines in a radius of a hundred yards from the watcher's hut. Where there is an abundance of pasture for cattle, the stubble is left very high and is burned where it stands, to manure the ground. But if straw is needed for