AGRICULTURE has become the main economic activity in northern Shan State, with its proximity to China enticing many to invest in rubber and other industrial crops to help satisfy its insatiable demand for raw materials.

Thick jungles have been turned into a major agricultural zone where groups are working together to help improve the standard of living of the region’s farmers.

An insurgency that raged in the region ended during the 1990s, leaving in its wake an urgent need for economic development.

The biggest challenge for the regional authorities has been to promote and support alternative sources of income among former poppy growers in what was once a major opium production area.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimated last year that opium was grown on 240 hectares (593 acres), down more than 90 percent on the figure for 2005 of more than 2500ha (6177 acres).

To meet the challenge, senior military and civil officials, as well as agricultural experts and members of former rebel groups which signed peace agreement with the government, have been cooperating on massive agricultural development programs.

Major General Aung Than Htut, the commander of the North East Region based at Lashio, about 645 kilometres (400 miles) north of Yangon, said his command wanted to become a role model in agricultural development.

“As a peacetime activity our officers and soldiers work on our command’s farms and try to set an example for local farmers of the benefit of agriculture development,” Maj Gen Aung Than Htut told a group of journalists on a government-sponsored tour of the region late last month.

He said the command has established five farms around Lashio, each of 404ha (1000 acres), on what had been undeveloped land.

The farms grow high-yield rice varieties imported from China, and maize and sugar, as well as physic nuts, from which bio-diesel can be produced.

“Our main purpose for developing these farms is not economic benefit; they are being established to educate others about the advantages of agricultural businesses,” Maj Gen Aung Than Htut said. “We want to help promote the development of the agricultural sector and help farmers to increase their incomes,” he said.

“We are also helping to protect the environment and to alleviate a shortage of fuel,” said Maj Gen Aung Than Htut, referring to the region’s target of establishing 202,345ha (500,000 acres) of physic nut plantations by 2010.

The commander said the region was halfway towards achieving the target.
One of the successful alternative income projects in the region is the 404ha (1000 acre) rubber plantation established at Man Pan village under the leadership of U Sai Sam, a former commander with U Khun Sa’s Mong Tai Army, which was involved in large-scale opium production until the group laid down its arms in 1996.

U Sai Sam and the 120 people under his command stopped growing opium after the surrender and virgin land near the village, which is about 18km (11 miles) from Lashio, was transformed into the plantation.

“This place used to be a battleground and it was very difficult for people living in the area to earn a living,” U Sai Sam said.

“Now I can provide jobs to people living in the area,” he said.

The plantation is part of a plan by regional authorities to grow 4046ha (10,000 acres) of rubber in the area around Lashio by 2010. Plantations have already been established on half the targetted area, said U Win Hlaing Oo, the manager in Shan State of the Perennial Crops Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation.

“China is a huge market for processed rubber and as it is close to our region, we have encouraged the growing of rubber as an alternative income source for former opium growers,” U Win Hlaing Oo said.

“Rubber is a new crop in this region and we encourage farmers to grow it by explaining that it will generate long-term economic benefits,” he said.

Establishing rubber plantations on hills of this region also has environmental benefits, U Win Hlaing Oo said.

Rubber plantations are being established in many other parts of northern Shan State, which borders China’s Yunnan Province.

More than 16,600ha (41,000 acres) of plantations have been established since rubber was introduced to the region in 2001, U Win Hlaing Oo said.

“Farmers were pessimistic about the prospects for rubber when it was introduced because they had wrongly assumed that it could only be grown on plains in lower Myanmar,” he said.

U Win Hlaing Oo said the development of the agriculture sector in northern Shan State was a major peace dividend.

“We can get access to the remotest parts of the region, which helps a lot in making people more aware of the advantages of modern farming methods,” he said.