Farmers gain profit from rice, onion, chilli amidst higher production cost

In the agricultural sector, the increase in the price of soil and fuel oil, which are inputs, is much higher this year than normal years.
Rain onion, rice, and chilli prices are also higher than normal prices, and now in 2022, farmers are getting profit.
In cultivation, rain-fed cultivation is the most common, and there is also the recycling of natural fertilizers instead of high-priced soil.
In 2021, when the new monsoon rice was released, the average yield of rain rice per acre was around 70 baskets, one hundred baskets of rice were sold for around 600,000 kyats, but this year they sold more than 11,000,000 kyats.
Long time matured Pawsan rice is sold for more than K1.4 million per 100 baskets. Compared to last year, the price of 100 baskets of rice is around 500,000 kyats this year.
The new rain onions can also be available for more than 2,000 kyat per viss this year. It is reported that the new monsoon onions that started arriving in early November are fetching a high price of over 2,500 kyats per viss. Although some onions were damaged due to untimely rains, most of the undamaged ones are preparing to go to the market where prices are still high.
New rain onions can fetch around double the price compared to normal same years.
In the same way, among the peppers produced from mid-2022, the peppers produced at the end of the year can be sold at around four times the price compared to the same period of the previous year,” owner of the chilli market, Ko Hla Han, told the GNLM.
Thedaw Moehtaung chilli, which entered the chilli pepper market around the end of June, went from around 4,000 kyats per viss in the same period last year to 8,000 kyats in the same period of the new release this year, and after about four months, at the beginning of November, it reached 15,500 kyats per viss.
Moehtaung peppers from Kyaukse, Pyawbwe, Yamethin, and Thazi were priced at around 10,000 kyats per viss at the beginning of the year, but this month they have increased to 15,500 kyats.
At the end of October, the newly released long Shan chilli and Shan Moehtaung chilli are sold at 17,500 kyats per viss.
The price of Shan Buesot pepper is 21,500 kyats per viss. According to the old prices, the price of these new peppers was only around K4,000 per viss in the same period last year.
In Myanmar, the prices of agricultural inputs have increased, but some of the crops produced have also increased in price, and the farmers are getting more income.
Around 90 baskets of spring rice are produced per acre, and the spring rice that will be harvested and planted as a new crop now costs around K1.2 million per hundred baskets. One tonne of black bean is around K1.7 million. The price of long pepper is around 17,000 kyats per viss this month.
The prices of these three types of crops that will be produced after this year’s rainy season harvest will be higher than the price of mung bean, spring rice and delta pepper,” farmer U Ye Tun, a market analyst, told the GNLM.—TWA/GNLM