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With research staff from more than 60 countries, and offices across the globe, IFPRI provides research-based policy solutions to sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition in developing countries.

researcher spotlight

Liangzhi You

Liangzhi You is a Senior Research Fellow and theme leader in the Foresight and Policy Modeling Unit, based in Washington, DC. His research focuses on climate resilience, spatial data and analytics, agroecosystems, and agricultural science policy. Gridded crop production data of the world (SPAM) and the agricultural technology evaluation model (DREAM) are among his research contributions. 

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Where we work

IFPRI currently has more than 600 employees working in over 80 countries with a wide range of local, national, and international partners.

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Country program Myanmar

country program

Myanmar Strategy Support Program

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country programs

Overview

Book

Myanmar’s agrifood system: Historical development, recent shocks, future opportunities

2024Boughton, Duncan; Belton, Ben; Lambrecht, Isabel B.; Masias, Ian; Minten, Bart
Details

Myanmar’s agrifood system: Historical development, recent shocks, future opportunities

Myanmar has endured multiple crises in recent years — including COVID-19, global price instability, the 2021 coup, and widespread conflict — that have disrupted and even reversed a decade of economic development. Household welfare has declined severely, with more than 3 million people displaced and many more affected by high food price inflation and worsening diets. Yet Myanmar’s agrifood production and exports have proved surprisingly resilient. Myanmar’s Agrifood System: Historical Development, Recent Shocks, Future Opportunities provides critical analyses and insights into the agrifood system’s evolution, current state, and future potential. This work fills an important knowledge gap for one of Southeast Asia’s major agricultural economies — one largely closed to empirical research for many years. It is the culmination of a decade of rigorous empirical research on Myanmar’s agrifood system, including through the recent crises. Written by IFPRI researchers and colleagues from Michigan State University, the book’s insights can serve as a to guide immediate humanitarian assistance and inform future growth strategies, once a sustainable resolution to the current crisis is found that ensures lasting peace and good governance.

Year published

2024

Authors

Boughton, Duncan; Belton, Ben; Lambrecht, Isabel B.; Masias, Ian; Minten, Bart

Citation

Boughton, Duncan; Belton, Ben; Lambrecht, Isabel B.; Masias, Ian; and Minten, Bart (Eds.). 2024. Myanmar’s agrifood system: Historical development, recent shocks, future opportunities. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/152392

Country/Region

Myanmar

Keywords

Asia; South-eastern Asia; Agrifood Systems; Development; Economic Shock; Governance

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Record type

Book

The Myanmar Strategy Support Program (Myanmar SSP) aims to enhance the national capacity to conduct research and prioritize strategic reforms that improve food security and nutrition in Myanmar. Through a multi-faceted and multidisciplinary research program designed to anticipate and monitor the impacts of multiple crises on household welfare and the agrifood system, Myanmar SSP provides rapid assessments that inform programming and investments for development partners, civil society, and the private sector. Moreover, working collaboratively with national researchers in academic institutions, it aims to fill the knowledge gap on the agrifood system, while developing the technical capacity of the next generation of national leaders to conduct research, strategic analysis and promote evidence-based policy making to support agricultural transformation and other broad development goals in Myanmar.

The Feed the Future Myanmar Agrifood Program for Strategy and Analysis (MAPSA), funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), is Myanmar SSP’s flagship project. The project is led by International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), in partnership with Michigan State University (MSU).  MAPSA generates data and analysis of the agri-food system and food security outcomes to guide efforts to support the people of Myanmar and ensure resilience. Activities focus on enhancing resilience in the near term and preserve a foundation for the inclusive growth and transformation of the agri-food system in the medium term. 

The Agrifood Value Chain Development in Myanmar: Implications for Livelihoods of the Rural Poor (AFVC) project, funded by the Livelihoods and Food Security Fund (LIFT) aims to promote inclusive agricultural productivity growth, improved nutritional outcomes, and enhanced livelihood resilience for men and women through an improved policy enabling environment. Activities focus on monitoring the impact of multiple crises on household livelihoods and welfare to inform development partners and civil society on the evolution of the agrifood system and its implications. This project is led by Michigan State University (MSU) in partnership with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

To learn more, visit the IFPRI Myanmar website.

IFPRI Myanmar Website

Donors

Partners

Duration

2019 – Ongoing

Publications

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Brief

Monitoring the agri-food system in Myanmar: Rice millers – September 2024 survey round

2024Myanmar Agriculture Policy Support Activity
Details

Monitoring the agri-food system in Myanmar: Rice millers – September 2024 survey round

In September 2024, we surveyed 256 rice millers from 12 states and regions across Myanmar to assess the impacts of the monsoon floods and the political crisis and related disruptions. This report presents the key results and analysis from those interviews. Key findings  Flooding has significantly affected monsoon paddy production, with 74 percent of millers reporting flood-related impacts, particularly in the main rice-growing regions. Consequently, 63 percent of millers expect local production to decline compared to last year, with 73 percent of millers in flood-affected areas anticipating reduced output.  Labor shortages have emerged as a critical challenge for milling businesses, with 53 percent of millers identifying it as a significant issue and 7 percent considering it the most severe disruption.  Mills continue to face ongoing difficulties accessing electricity and fuel, alongside rising transportation costs. Moreover, reports about disruptions in banking and finance have doubled compared to last year, indicating increasingly widespread and persistent challenges.  Mill-level paddy and rice prices continued to rise in September 2024. Rice prices increased by 17–19 percent compared to one year earlier, while paddy prices rose by a more modest 8 percent on average. This discrepancy suggests that higher milling margins account for a significant share of the price increases. Looking forward  There will be lower paddy production from the 2024 monsoon season due to floods and pests, which is expected to further drive-up rice prices for consumers. Rice prices have already risen rapidly over the past three years, raising serious concerns about affordability and food security.  Labor availability is a rising concern and rising costs of labor and fuel together with volatile byproduct markets and other business disruptions have likely contributed to rising milling margins, with a smaller share of rice price increases passed through to producers. This trend underscores the impacts of business disruptions and the need for stability.

Year published

2024

Authors

Myanmar Agriculture Policy Support Activity

Citation

Myanmar Agriculture Policy Support Activity. 2024. Monitoring the agri-food system in Myanmar: Rice millers – September 2024 survey round. Myanmar SSP Research Note 120. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute.

Country/Region

Myanmar

Keywords

Asia; South-eastern Asia; Agrifood Systems; Milling; Monsoons; Flooding; Rice; Labour Shortage; Prices; Fuels

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Record type

Brief

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Working Paper

Livelihoods and welfare: Findings from the seventh round of the Myanmar Household Welfare Survey (January–June 2024)

2024Myanmar Agrifood Program for Strategy and Analysis
Details

Livelihoods and welfare: Findings from the seventh round of the Myanmar Household Welfare Survey (January–June 2024)

The seventh round of the Myanmar Household Welfare Survey (MHWS), a nationally and regionally representative phone survey, was implemented between April–June 2024 with a recall period covering January to June of the same year. It follows six rounds of surveys that were carried out since the beginning of December 2021. This report documents livelihood and welfare dynamics over this survey period. Overall, household welfare has deteriorated in Myanmar considerably over the past two years. In terms of income sources, household farming, farm wages, and non-farm businesses are the most important livelihoods in rural areas while non-farm businesses and non-farm salary employment are most important in urban areas. However, in terms of primary livelihoods, we witness a structural shift in livelihood profiles of rural households with fewer households identifying non-farm business income are their primary livelihood (4.1 percentage points decrease) while more households rely on farm wages (2.9 percentage points increase). There are also fewer reported sources of income with households on average reporting 1.6 income sources, compared to almost 2 years ago. The primary source of income is shifting to low-paying livelihoods like wage work, with remittances and assistance serve as supplementary income sources. A combination of increasing prices and growing reliance on low paying livelihoods over the past years led to a significant decline in household purchasing power. Median real household income per adult equivalent per day declined by 8.4 percent over the past year between the first half of 2023 and 2024 and by 18.2 percent over the two-year period between the first half of 2022 and 2024. Over the same period, the headcount rate of poverty increased to 63.6 percent in the first half of 2024 from 60.9 percent a year back in 2023 and 56.2 percent two years back in 2022. Wage earning households continue to be extremely vulnerable with the lowest median real daily income per adult equivalent as well as the livelihood category with the highest level of poverty. With respect to states/regions, poverty is the highest in states engulfed by high levels of conflict, for example, Rakhine, Chin and Kayah. A notable trend in recent years is the faster increase in urban poverty. Urban poverty increased by 9.2 percentage points over the past year from the first half of 2023 to the first half of 2024, while it increased by 14.7 percentage points over the past two years from the first half of 2022 to first half of 2024. On the other hand, rural poverty only increased by 0.2 percentage points in the past year and 4.6 percentage points in the past two years. There are only a few strategies helping households stay out of poverty, including earning income from farming (which has partially benefited from higher output prices), migrating with the whole household, and receiving assistance or remittances. The presence of remittance income significantly reduces a household’s probability of being poor by a notable 21 percentage points. There are many inter-linked factors that have led to the deterioration in welfare in Myanmar in recent years, including escalating conflict, macroeconomic mismanagement and inflation in particular, the breakdown of social protection, and the absence or deterioration of many other critical services normally provided by the state, including healthcare and nutrition, education, agricultural extension, financial programs for the poor, infrastructure development and social protection.

Year published

2024

Authors

Myanmar Agrifood Program for Strategy and Analysis

Citation

Myanmar Agrifood Program for Strategy and Analysis. 2024. Livelihoods and welfare: Findings from the seventh round of the Myanmar Household Welfare Survey (January–June 2024). Myanmar SSP Working Paper 64. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/163633

Country/Region

Myanmar

Keywords

Asia; South-eastern Asia; Households; Livelihoods; Telephone Surveys; Welfare

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Working Paper

Resource thumbnail

Working Paper

Food avoidance among breastfeeding mothers in Myanmar and its impacts on maternal dietary quality

2024Myanmar Agrifood Program for Strategy and Analysis
Details

Food avoidance among breastfeeding mothers in Myanmar and its impacts on maternal dietary quality

Key Findings • This study designed and analyzed two new surveys in Myanmar. The first one is the fifth Myanmar Household Welfare Survey (MHWS) round conducted from April to June 2023, in which 12,953 respondents were surveyed, including 5,512 women of reproductive age (15-49). The second is the Rural Urban Food Security Survey conducted in 2020, in which respondents were women who were pregnant in round 1 (June-July 2020) in Yangon and participated in at least five of those six rounds. • Forty percent of all Myanmar women aged 15-49 believe that breastfeeding mothers should avoid at least one healthy food, with vegetables the most widely cited food to be avoided, followed by fruits, fish, meat and beans/nuts. • Beliefs were prevalent throughout Myanmar’s diverse regions and across both genders, but more common in majority Buddhist regions (and less common in majority Christian regions). • Beliefs in food avoidance during breastfeeding were less prevalent among women with more formal education and nutritional knowledge, and with exposure to nutrition counselling from community health workers. • Mothers in the Yangon panel saw minimum dietary diversity of women (MDD-W) fall by 46 percentage points from pregnancy to the first month after birth, stemming from significant declines in eight of the ten MDD-W food groups. • MDD-W recovered somewhat over the second to fifth months after birth but was still significantly lower up to the sixth month after birth.

Year published

2024

Authors

Myanmar Agrifood Program for Strategy and Analysis

Citation

Myanmar Agrifood Program for Strategy and Analysis. 2024. Food avoidance among breastfeeding mothers in Myanmar and its impacts on maternal dietary quality. Myanmar SSP Research Note 118. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/163458

Country/Region

Myanmar

Keywords

Asia; South-eastern Asia; Surveys; Households; Women; Pregnancy; Breastfeeding; Diet; Nutrition; Education; Religion

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

Blogs

Resource-poor rice farmers in Myanmar suffer double impact from political conflict
IFPRI Blog
 | 
November 12, 2024

Resource-poor rice farmers in Myanmar suffer double impact from political conflict

By Hiroyuki Takeshima, Zin Wai Aung, Ian Masias, and Bart Minten

Productivity erodes amid turmoil.

Cash, COVID, coup, crisis: A pre-pandemic maternal and child cash transfer program had sustained dietary benefits during Myanmar’s ongoing emergency
IFPRI Blog
 | 
March 15, 2023

Cash, COVID, coup, crisis: A pre-pandemic maternal and child cash transfer program had sustained dietary benefits during Myanmar’s ongoing emergency

By Derek Headey and Elisa Maffioli

Positive health and nutrition results persist even in adverse circumstances.

Survey: COVID-19 undermines incomes, livelihoods in rural Myanmar
IFPRI Blog
 | 
May 14, 2021

Survey: COVID-19 undermines incomes, livelihoods in rural Myanmar

By Catherine Ragasa, Isabel Lambrecht, and Michael Wang

Mobility restrictions and market disruptions hit farming households hard.

View all Blogs

News

January 30, 2023 | In the News

Contentious election looms in Myanmar (The Star) 

The Star (Myanmar) published an article on the current state of politics and lost progress over the past two years. Armed conflict started in February 2021, but some are hopeful that a new election will turn turmoil into something workable for its citizens. However, many experts see little hope for negotiation.  More than 1.5 million […]

December 20, 2022 | In the News

Embattled Myanmar people see rise in crime as country’s political situation gets worse (The Star) 

The Star (Myanmar) published an article stating that while definitive crime statistics were not available, over 10 urban residents contacted by ST reported having been victims of or witnessed crimes affecting their friends and relatives, making them unwilling to venture outdoors at nightfall or fearful of carrying anything valuable when they leave their homes. According […]

December 13, 2022 | In the News

Rising production costs deny farmers benefits of high rice prices (Frontier Myanmar) 

Rice prices are going up, hitting ordinary Myanmar consumers, but smallholder farmers must still contend with higher costs of fertilizer and diesel, writes Frontier Myanmar, quoting IFPRI research on the matter.  “Local knowledge is backed up by international reports.  The International Food Policy Research Institute, a United States-based non-profit research center, says Myanmar’s rice productivity […]

View all News

Events

Assessments of the Impacts of COVID-19 on Myanmar's food security and welfare
IFPRI Program/Country Event

 | 

November 11, 2020, 2:00 – 3:30 pm

Assessments of the Impacts of COVID-19 on Myanmar’s food security and welfare

While a much stronger second wave of COVID-19 cases poses a serious and sustained threat to the health of the Myanmar population, it also brings renewed economic disruptions and poses new challenges for efforts to avert poverty, food insecurity, and malnutrition. To generate evidence that can better inform the design of emergency response and economic […]

Assessing the Impact of COVID-19 on Food and Nutrition Security in Myanmar
IFPRI Program/Country Event

 | 

September 15, 2020, 9:00 – 10:30 am

Assessing the Impact of COVID-19 on Food and Nutrition Security in Myanmar

The impacts of the COVID-19 economic crisis are threatening the livelihoods and welfare of vulnerable households in Myanmar. Declining household income, from increases in unemployment and declines in remittances, can have negative long-term effects on the food and nutrition insecurity of households and the overall welfare of vulnerable populations. A deeper understanding of the social […]

Assessing the Impact of COVID-19 on Myanmar’s Livestock and Fishery Sectors
IFPRI Program/Country Event

 | 

August 26, 2020, 9:00 – 10:30 am

Assessing the Impact of COVID-19 on Myanmar’s Livestock and Fishery Sectors

Myanmar’s livestock and fishery sectors are crucial to the livelihoods of many vulnerable households, and an important dimension in improving nutritional outcomes in the country. The COVID-19 pandemic and efforts to mitigate its spread have led to disruptions in these sectors arising from declines in incomes and restrictions on movement. Careful monitoring of the impact […]

View all Events

Team members

Bart Minten

Bart Minten

Senior Research Fellow/ Program Leader of the Myanmar Strategy Support Program, Development
Strategies and Governance

Bart Minten

Bart Minten

Senior Research Fellow/ Program Leader of the Myanmar Strategy Support Program, Development
Strategies and Governance

Derek Headey

Derek Headey

Senior Research Fellow, Development
Strategies and Governance

Ian Masias

Ian Masias

Program Head, Development
Strategies and Governance

profile

Kristi Mahrt

Senior Research Analyst, Development
Strategies and Governance

The Programs

  • Kutubdia Island in the Bay of Bengal

    Bangladesh Policy Research and Strategy Support Program

    Improving food and nutrition security is of paramount concern to millions in Bangladesh.

  • Wuxi, the fast growing city that was formerly known as White Horse Village.

    China Strategy Support Program

    Supports joint research & capacity strengthening as well as policy dialogues & communication to improve policymaking.

  • Farm land in Giza in Egypt

    Egypt Strategy Support Program

    Egypt SSP's main objective is to raise incomes of the rural poor and to improve food and nutrition security in Egypt.

  • Gayo village, Ethiopia

    Ethiopia Strategy Support Program

    ESSP is a collaborative program undertaken by IFPRI and the Ethiopian Development Research Institute (EDRI)

  • amevi-wisdom-wiul_nyafcy-unsplash

    Ghana Strategy Support Program

    Conduct research & advise on policy to support agricultural growth, rural development & economic transformation.

  • Local vendors selling vegetables at a market in Kenya,Africa

    Kenya Strategy Support Program

    KSSP is a policy research, capacity strengthening and policy communication program with the main objectives to accelerate poverty reduction and to improve food security.

  • Mitundu Market, Lilongwe, Malawi

    Malawi Strategy Support Program

    This project facilitates and promotes evidence-based dialogue and decision-making in support of agricultural development, food security, and economic growth in Malawi.

  • Country program Myanmar

    Myanmar Strategy Support Program

    The project supports agricultural transformation and other development policy goals by enhancing national technical, institutional, and policy analysis capacities.

  • Nigeria Strategy Support Program

    NSSP responds to the research, analysis, and capacity needs of stakeholders in the Nigerian agricultural research and policy community.

  • Papua New Guinea Agriculture, Food, and Nutrition Policy Support Program

    The Papua New Guinea Agriculture, Food, and Nutrition Policy Support Program (PNG-AFNP) is an initiative aligned with the Government of Papua New Guinea’s vision to revitalize and transform its agricultural sector to improve economic opportunities, livelihoods, and food security.

  • Fertile field at sunset in the countryside (Rwanda/ Africa)

    Rwanda Strategy Support Program

    Rwanda SSP is an initiative aligned with the Government of Rwanda’s vision to accelerate agricultural transformation and rural development in Rwanda.

  • A sunset view of river Nile in Khartoum, Sudan

    Sudan Strategy Support Program

    The Sudan Country Strategy Support Program (CSSP), with key team members based in Khartoum, can provide needed analytical support to the Government of Sudan, local and international partners.