Narinjara news
Advance Money for
Rice oh yes, for Exploitation too
Sittwe, 4 September 02: The Burmese junta has
started to distribute advance money for future “rice purchase” from rice
farmers beginning the first week of last month, according to sources in the
administration who declined to identify.
The advance money has been distributed across the seventeen townships of
For the coming 2002 2003 dry season when the
collection drive will be conducted, the Burmese junta officials have set the
target of the amount of rice to be collected at ten tinns
(1 tinn = 2.5 baskets or 30kgs) for each acre of
rice paddy. The amount of money advanced is kyat 225 for each tinn, while the present price of the same in
the market is kyat 1,300. A target of a total of 7.3 million tinn of rice has been set for collection this
year from
According to a farmer from
A rice farmer in the area told Narinjara that, though
the money so received at the difficult months during the monsoons is badly
needed, the amount of advance money from the Burmese junta, and the price fixed
for the future harvest of rice that will be forcefully collected are both
reminiscent of the practice of extortion by Indian Chettiya
moneylenders during the British rule in Burma. Even under Burmese
Socialism of Ne Win the farmers were compelled to sale their rice harvest at
throwaway prices to the state.