New Delhi (Mizzima) – National League for Democracy (NLD) general secretary Aung San Suu Kyi told Burmese farmers from across the country on Tuesday that if they have a better quality of life, the country will improve.
Farmers from across Burma are attending a three-day educational workshop put on by the National League for Democracy in Rangoon designed to provide useful agricultural techniques and to listen to farmers' needs. Photo: Mizzima
“To improve the country, we need to improve the quality of lives of farmers’, said Suu Kyi. Forty-six farmers from Irrawaddy, Pegu, Rangoon regions and Arakan State are attending the workshop. NLD Vice Chairman Tin Oo, Suu Kyi and central committee members attended the opening ceremony.
In the training session, topics included loans for farmers, land confiscation by authorities and other issues, Tin Oo told Mizzima. ‘In the agricultural training, the speakers will talk about how to use insecticides, and farmers can learn how to reduce their costs and how to manage a farm and money’, he said.
In discussion sessions, many farmers talked about the problems caused by the authorities’ order that requires them to grow multiple crops in paddy fields. The method is not suitable for their regions, farmers said, and loans are not sufficient to grow crops effectively.
Tin Oo said that the country needs a stable, effective goverrnment farm policy.
The farmers’ local NLD township branches provided farmers a stipend to cover their expenses to attend the workshop, according to Maung Maung Gyi, a member of the NLD Central Farmers’ Committee.
He said that farmers would pass on the advanced agricultural techniques and knowledge to other farmers in their region, and the NLD will continue to offer help to farmers.
In March, the NLD formed a social network for farmers to offer legal advice and information to farmers. The network comprises 33 farmers from 19 townships. It will compile information on issues affecting farmers, while linking the farmers to NLD headquarters in Rangoon.
