Adapting agricultural value chains to climate change in Shan State, Myanmar

Project description

Title: Adapting agricultural value chains to climate change in Shan State, Myanmar
Commissioning party: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Country: Myanmar
Lead executing agency: Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation (MOALI)
Overall term: 2015 to 2018

Context

The impacts of climate change – particularly the increased frequency of water shortages and floods – constitute a major challenge for agricultural development in Myanmar. Due to the projected increase in extreme weather events and an agricultural development plan that does not consider these climate impacts, increased crop losses and damages are expected. Private and public sector actors are currently largely unfamiliar with climate-resilient technologies, and there is also a lack of systematic risk management in operational and planning processes in order to adapt to the impacts of climate change. Furthermore, these actors lack the expertise to implement appropriate measures aimed at minimising climate risks. Adapting the agricultural sector to climate change is, however, necessary in order to enable sustainable rural development.

Shan State, where nearly 40 per cent of the rural population lives in poverty, is particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The state’s agriculture, characterized by small-scale farming, is especially vulnerable. Droughts, floods and erosion threaten the people’s livelihoods, which are based on agricultural value chains (tea, fruits, vegetables and rice). Businesses along the selected agricultural value chains, tea and mango, in particular have a low level of resilience to the risks generated by climate change.

Objective

Farms along selected agricultural value chains have greater resilience in the face of risks caused by climate change.

Approach

The executing agencies are the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation (MOALI) at the Union level as well as the Shan State Department of Agriculture (DoA), which functions as the direct implementation partner at the state, district and township level. The project supports these institutions to include aspects of climate change adaptation into their planning and advisory activities. Other implementation partners are the producer associations along the agricultural value chain tea and mango as well as experts from regional universities and research institutes. It is intended that together with these organisations, a profound basis of knowledge will be created regarding specific aspects of value chain adaptation. Further support will be provided to disseminate the new approaches and to demonstrate them through the implementation of best practice examples.

The target group comprises around 1,000 small-scale farmers and their businesses of the value chains tea and mango. These are located within nine townships in the three districts Taunggyi, Muse and Kyaukme in Shan State. The target group directly benefits from the project’s interventions as climate-resilient development of agricultural value chains provides for reliable incomes and stable jobs, while also contributing to the rural area’s overall economic development.

The project provides advisory and support services for the agricultural department in Shan State as well as for farms along the tea and mango value chains. To this end, the project focuses on three fields of activity:

  1. Providing better knowledge and practical experience with tea and mango production;
  2. Increasing the capacity of agricultural extension services;
  3. Integrating climate change adaptation strategies into agricultural development plans.

Results

Tea and mango farmers of 561 small-scale farms use the promoted adaptation measures. Tea farmers mainly apply adapted cultivation techniques against soil erosion and mango farmer establish water saving irrigation systems as well as soil fertility and integrated pest management methods.

Around 30 staff of the Departments of Agriculture and 40 farmer multipliers advise tea farmers in planning and implementing adaptation measures.

Further 6 staff of the Departments of Agriculture conducted participative climate proofing and planning workshops in two villages.