A phone survey was conducted in January 2022 to understand the effects of COVID-19 and political instability on Myanmar’s mechanization service providers (MSPs), crucial to enabling smallholder farmers to undertake a range of power-intensive farm and post-harvest operations in a timely manner. As MSP operations continue to be affected by market disruptions, an understanding of the situation on the ground is critical to support measures to ensure farmers’ access to MSP services. This note reports on the results of this survey, the eighth in a series of phone surveys, as well as on trends from earlier surveys.
You can view the full research note in English here.
Key findings
• Combine harvester service providers (CHSPs) provided harvesting services in the 2021 winter season on areas comparable to the same time in 2020.
• However, achieving this is likely to have been more costly in 2021, involving more costly coping methods against reduced demand, which many CHSPs still perceive as low compared to 2019. Timeliness of harvesting in 2021 may have been worse than in 2020.
• Farmers may be paying higher harvesting charges as they have few alternatives. The increase in hiring charges is therefore likely to directly reduce farmers’ incomes.
• Higher prices and reduced availability of machines and spare parts/attachments continues to grow among MSPs.
• Business prospects among MSPs, which were already poor in June 2021, deteriorated by the end of 2021. Increases in operating costs contributed significantly to this negative trend.
Recommended actions
• Disruptions to supply-chain logistics, transportation restrictions, and curfews enforced at multiple administrative levels are reducing the availability of machines, spare parts, and attachments and are impacting the supply of mechanized services. Travel restrictions should be removed, or at least made consistent, to allow MSPs to operate freely and to ensure the efficient functioning of the equipment supply-chain.
• Keeping repair shops open can also alleviate MSPs’ need to move machines beyond local areas to undertake necessary repair work.
• Access to formal credit through the Myanmar Agricultural Development Bank (MADB) or through microfinance institutions should be expanded to help ensure farmers’ access to affordable mechanization services, as farmers are likely to continue facing significantly increased costs in the 2022 season.
This blog post highlights one of the many recent surveys and research notes that MAPSA has conducted to assess the emerging constraints that key agricultural actors face and to mitigate the possible impacts of COVID-19 and recent disruptions on rural livelihoods and food security. Additional blog posts are available highlighting MAPSA’s research on the impact of disruptions on key actors in Myanmar’s agri-food system. Surveys are ongoing, and findings and recommendations will be periodically updated.
