Impact of rural labor migration on agricultural crop production in Lower Myanmar | |
| Author | Wint War Kyaw |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.RD-15-07 |
| Subject(s) | Rural-urban migration--Myanmar Agricultural laborers--Myanmar |
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Regional and Rural Development Planning |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Series Statement | Thesis ; no. RD-15-07 |
| Abstract | Myanmar is one of the developing countries and agriculture still plays a major economic role in Myanmar. Although only agricultural sector cannot contribute huge amount of national income, it is still important in Myanmar because of its contribution for substantial employments for citizens and national food security. However, people in the rural areas change their livelihood pattern by migrating to other areas in order to find better job opportunities and better services. Migration is an important process for urbanization but systematic migration without disturbing agricultural sector development is desirable to transform from agricultural based developing country to industrialized developed county. According to the topographical condition of Myanmar, lower part of the country is the major rice production zone because of its plain lands and fertile delta areas. Therefore, the study area was chosen from lower Myanmar and the impact of rural labor migration on agricultural crop production was assessed in or der to identify the effects of out-migration on crop production. The key findings of this stud y reveal that farm households have lost family labors after migration and the compensation of hired labors did not fully cover the loss of family labor in crop production. In or der to make balance between loss of family labors and increased labor requirement, farm households have increased the use of machines but mechanization did not develop well in all the processes of farming and farmers still rely on human labors during labor intensive periods of cropping such as transplanting and harvesting. In considering remittances, remittances did not contribute much in crop production as a reasonable pro portion of investment and moreover, farm households used large share of remittances in housing, debt payment and saving rather than crop production investment. However, migration and remittances affected on agricultural investment and application rates of agricultural inputs in crop production. Farm households increased both monetary value of investment and quantities of seeds for both paddy and pulses production after migration. Next, farm households have increased investment for fertilizer application although the quantity of fertilizer application rate did not increase after migration. Farm households increase d the monetary value of investments for agricultural inputs because of increased input prices but crop yield and crop income did not change considerably after migration. Thus, it could be said that migration did not change crop productivity although remittances positively affected on living standard of farm households. Therefore, policy makers should encourage farm household to invest remittances in crop production sector by persuading farmers with reasonable and stable crop price to ascertain good crop income. |
| Year | 2015 |
| Corresponding Series Added Entry | Asian Institute of Technology. Thesis ; no. RD-15-07 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development |
| Department | Department of Development and Sustainability (DDS) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Rural Development, Gender and Resources (RD) |
| Chairperson(s) | Routray, Jayant Kumar |
| Examination Committee(s) | Soparth Pongquan;Ahmad, Mokbul Morshed |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | AIT Fellowship;Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst (DAAD), Germany |
| Degree | Thesis (M. Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2015 |