IJERD – International Journal of Environmental and Rural Development (2020) 11-1

Research article
erdSocioeconomic Conditions and Perception of Climate
Change in Rice Varietal Selection by Smallholder Farmers
in Myanmar
SHWE MAR THAN*
Advanced Center for Agricultural Research and Education, Yezin Agricultural University,Yezin, Myanmar
Email: shwemar@gmail.com, dr.shwemarthan@yau.edu.mm

THADAR HTWE
Department of Agricultural Economics, Yezin Agricultural University, Yezin, Myanmar
Received 24 January 2020

Accepted 5 May 2020(*Corresponding Author)

Abstract Rice is an economically, socially, politically, and culturally important crop grownin diverse agro-ecological conditions all over Myanmar. Climate change impacts affect riceproduction directly and link in farming decisions for cropping systems. As the population
keeps growing and climatic variabilities and extreme weather events keep increasing themarginal productivity of land would not be negligible for the food security and sustainableagriculture. This study was conducted to meet the objectives of to overview thesocioeconomic characteristics of farmers, find out the serious problems faced by the farmers
in rice production, know the most practicing coping strategy to adopt the weather variability
and determine farmers’ preferred characteristics of rice and perception on climate change inrice variety selection. A sample of 203 rice farmers from Thazi Township were randomly
selected and conducted interview. Descriptive analysis and weighted average method wereemployed. Rice varieties were very diverse and Manawthukha was the most favorite variety.
The newly released salt tolerant variety, Pyi Myanmar Sein was adopted by only one percentof respondents. The farmers are quite aware of climate change and they claimed the extremeweather conditions are the most stressful to rice production and they want shorter duration
variety in order to make sure the enough soil moisture because majority of them do not haveaccess to irrigation water. Changing rice variety was the most cited coping strategy to climatechange adaptation followed by changing crop, changing sowing time, practicing crop
rotation, changing cultivation methods and managing fertilizer application. The mostpreferred trait was high yielding variety followed by high quality, resistance to disease, pestsand drought.
Keywords climate change, strategy, adaptation, stress, traits, coping strategy

INTRODUCTION
Myanmar has been experiencing various features of climate change conditions such as frequent andstrong storms, floods, late onset of monsoon, early departure of monsoon, lower minimum
temperature and higher maximum temperature, erratic rainfall patterns, frequent falls of hales andthunder storms, and sea level rise, etc. According to the long-term climate risk index (CRI) publishedby Germanwatch, Myanmar stood as the third most affected country in the world on annual average
from 1998-2017. Increased intensity of storms has taken a toll on small island states and poor
countries since 1997, and over 520,000 people have been killed by more than 11,000 extreme weatherevents (Burck et al., 2017). Myanmar is the second most vulnerable country revealed by global
climate risk index. Extreme weather events have a strong negative impact on economic developmentof a developing country. Besides, their main economic sector is still agriculture and it is extremely
vulnerable to weather variabilities. Furthermore, more than two third of farming society aresmallholders and they grow rice in rain fed and/or irrigated lowland area in Myanmar. Therefore,Ⓒ ISERD170

IJERD – International Journal of Environmental and Rural Development (2020) 11-1

this study was conducted to learn more about how socioeconomic background of farmers and theirperceptions on climate change affect their choice of rice varieties.
OBJECTIVE
The study was conducted to meet the objectives for to overview the socioeconomic characteristics offarmers, find out the serious problems faced by the farmers in rice production, know the mostpracticing coping strategy to adopt the weather variability and determine farmers’ preferredcharacteristics of rice and perception on climate change in rice variety selection.
METHODOLOGY
Description of Study Area
This study was conducted in Thazi Township located in Meiktila District of Mandalay Division,Myanmar. Thazi Township is situated in North Latitudes 20˙ 50' and East Longitude 95˙ 59', and its
area is 2,039 km². It is located in Central Dry Zone of Myanmar and has a tropical climate. According
to the Department of Population (2014 Census, 2015), its total population was 202,680 - males were95,463 and females were 107,217. In Thazi Township, about 182,119 (89.9%) of its population livein rural area and about 20,561 (10.1%) live in urban area.
Data Collection
For this study, both quantitative and qualitative data were used. Pilot survey was done in November
and main survey was conducted in December 2016. Simple random sampling method was used tocollect primary data and 203 sample farmers from 19 villages in Thazi Township were interviewed
by using structured interview schedule. Secondary data were collected from the Township
Department of Agriculture Office.
Methods of Analysis: Descriptive Analysis
Descriptive analysis was used to describe demographic characteristics of the household such as age,education, family size, farming experience, farm size and agricultural land utilization and to observe
the problems faced by the rice farmers.
Weighted Average
Weighted average method was used to investigate farmers’ preferences on rice varietalcharacteristics. Farmers’ preferences were categorized into three groups: production characteristics,
stress tolerant characteristics and grain quality characteristics. Farmers were requested to score on
the given rice varietal traits. If they assumed that the given trait was extremely important or important,
the trait was scored as 3 or 2, respectively. If the trait was assumed as not important, it was scored as
1.
Weighted Average =Sum of Weighted Terms
Total Number of Terms

The score values were calculated by using weighted average method to rank farmers’
preferences on rice varietal trait.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Socioeconomic Conditions of FarmersⒸ ISERD

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The demographic characteristics such as age, farming experience, family size, education and farm
size the sample farmers are presented in Table 1. In Thazi Township, the average farmer age was
55.6 years, and ranging from 28 to 86 and most farmers are quite old. Agriculture is mainly threatenedby climate change and becoming less profitability. Therefore, young people from rural area are notinterested in agriculture and moving out of rural areas. That is becoming an important issue for
Myanmar Agriculture. The average farming experience was 29.6 years with the range of 2-70 years.
Although farmers have many years of farming experience with a lot of knowledge and experience inagriculture, they may rarely adopt new agricultural technologies. The average family size was 5.5,
ranging from 1 to 14 family members. In case of education, the average schooling years was 7.3, andranging from 3 to 16 years. Some farmers were graduated, and thus they can adopt new technologies
and can manage their farm very well. The average farm size was 4.1 hectares with a range between
0.4 and 14.9 hectares, respectively.
Table 1 Demographic characteristic of the respondents in Thazi TownshipItems
Age of household’s head
Farming experience of household’s head
Family size
Education of household’s head
Farm size
Low land (70.2 %)Upland (29.2 %)Orchard (0.6 %)UnitYearYear
No.
Yearhahahaha

Average
55.6
29.6
5.5
7.3
4.1
3.0
1.7
2.8

Minimum
28
2
1
3
0.4
0.4
0.2
2.4

Maximum
86
70
1416
14.9
13.0
8.1
3.1

In Thazi Township, the average farm size of lowland, upland and orchard were 3.0, 1.7 and 2.8
hectares, respectively. Lowland area ranged from 0.4 to 13.0 hectares while upland area ranged from0.2 to 8.1 hectares. Orchard was the smallest agricultural land area, ranging from 2.4 to 3.1 hectares.
Among the agricultural land areas, lowland occupied 70.2%, and rice was the major crop in Thazi
Township. Upland growing area was the second largest, and it occupied 29.2%. Orchard was thesmallest area and it was only 0.6% of total agricultural land of the respondents.
Table 2 Annual household incomes in Thazi Township (MMK in million)
Types of Income
Crop Income
Livestock income
Off-farm income
Non-farm income
Total annual household incomeN2036116106
203

Average
3.51
1.68
0.84
2.36
5.32

Minimum
0.08
0.18
0.03
0.02
0.38

Maximum
33.70
6.40
4.73
8.64
38.70

Annual household incomes earned by respondents in Thazi Township are shown in Table 2.
Crop income was the main income source for sample farmers. Average crop income was 3.51 million
MMK per year for farmers, ranging from 80,000 MMK to 33.7 million MMK per year. Livestockincome was earned by 61 respondents, and it amounted to 1.68 million MMK in average per year
while maximum and minimum livestock incomes were 0.18 million MMK to 6.4 million MMK peryear, respectively. Only 16 respondents had off-farm income, and the average off-farm income was0.84 million MMK per year. The maximum off-farm income was 4.73 million MMK per year, but
the minimum income was only 30,000 MMK per year. Non-farm income was earned by 106 sample
households, and the average non-farm income was 2.36 million MMK per year ranging from 20,000
MMK to 8.64 million MMK per year. As a total annual household income, the average annual
household income was 5.32 million MMK per year. The minimum and maximum total annual
household incomes were 0.38 million MMK and 38.7 million MMK per year.
Problems Faced by Rice FarmersⒸ ISERD

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As lowland was the largest area, rice was the major crop in Thazi Township. Therefore, stress or
problems in rice production faced by the respondents were collected. It was found that six mainstresses for rice farmers were climate change, insects, disease, salinity, rats and weeds. According tothe opinions of farmers, the largest group of respondents (48.3%) assumed that climate change is oneof the biggest stresses for rice production. The second (31%) and third (15.3%) biggest group offarmers said that insects and diseases were major serious problems for rice production. In addition,
4.4% of respondents thought that soil salinity was one of the problems for rice production. Incidenceof rats and weed problems were faced by 3.4% of respondents. Moreover, 6.9% of respondents faced
other stresses such as scarcity of labor and high price of inputs, especially fertilizer in their riceproduction (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1 The stresses in rice crop production in Thazi Township
Climate Change Coping Strategies
Table 3 Adaptation strategies to climate change in Thazi TownshipResponse to climate change
Change varieties
Change crop
Change sowing time
Crop rotation
Change cultivation methods
Use fertilizer
Use underground water
Put F.Y.M
Use traditional varieties
Use quality seeds

Frequency
8857
18
15
10
10
4
4
3
2

Percent (%)
41.7
27.0
8.5
7.1
4.7
4.7
1.9
1.9
1.4
0.9

Rank
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
5th
6th
6th
7th
8th

Since climate change was the major stress according to farmers’ opinion, adaptation strategies oflocal farmers to climate change were observed. According to the results, changing crop varieties was
the strategy used by most of the respondents (41.7%) to combat climate change. It was followed bychanging crop as the second rank and used by 27% of respondents. Changing sowing time, practicing
crop rotation, changing cultivation methods and using fertilizer were the strategies used by 8.5%,7.1%, 4.7% and 4.7% of respondents, respectively. Using underground water, putting F.Y.M andusing traditional varieties were used by 1.9%, 1.9% and 1.4% of respondents. Using quality seeds
was the least strategy used by respondents (0.9%) to adapt to climate change (Table 3).
Farmers’ preferences on production characteristics of rice are shown in Table 4. Majority offarmers preferred the trait of high yielding most. It is clear that a variety to be yielding high is themost important factor for rice growing farmers. Moreover, farmers preferred rice variety trait of highyield with less inputs, and it was ranked as the second. However, few of them think rice variety withthat trait is not that important. Rice variety producing high number of tiller ranked as third factor
according to farmers’ preferences. Most of farmers assumed that the more the tiller numbers, thehigher the rice yields. Resistance to lodging and shorter growing duration were ranked as fourth andⒸ ISERD173

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fifth factors, respectively. Heavy rains and floods caused lodging of rice plants causing the yield loss.
If the farmers were able to grow lodging resistant variety, they could reduce yield loss. Short duration
variety can avoid extreme climatic conditions relative to traditional long duration variety. In addition,
farmers preferred shattering resistant variety as the sixth rank. It is clear that shattering leads to bothpre-harvest and post-harvest yield losses. Therefore, shattering resistant variety is also important forfarmers. High rice straw production was ranked as the last according to farmers’ preferences. Farmers
mostly used rice straw for cattle feeding. During recent years, cattle have been scarce in the study
area, and some of farmers did not prefer to get high rice straw.
Table 4 Farmers’ preferences on production characteristics of rice
Production characteristics
High yieldhigh yield with less inputs costs
High tillering
Resistant to lodging
Shorter growing duration
Resistant to shattering
High straw production

Extremely
important
3198
191
181
164
130
115
82

Important

Not important

2471729
48
38
47

1
155
1025
50
74

Weighted
average

Rank

2.97
2.92
2.87
2.76
2.52
2.32
2.04

1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
6th
7th

Farmers’ preferences on stress tolerant characteristics of rice are presented in Table 5. Majorityof farmers preferred pests and diseases resistant varieties, and ranked them as first and second,respectively. Actually, pests and diseases are the main important stresses or problems for farmers,
thus farmers preferred pest and disease resistant varieties most. Since the study area is in the dryzone, farmers preferred drought and salinity tolerant varieties as third and fourth ranks, respectively.
In addition, some farmers preferred rice variety tolerant to cold injury, and it ranked fifth. Flood orsubmergence was also one of the stresses for some farmers, and it ranked sixth.
Table 5 Farmers’ Preferences on Stress Tolerant Characteristics of RiceStress tolerant characteristics
Resistant to pests
Resistant to diseases
Tolerant to drought
Tolerant to salinity
Tolerant to cold injury
Tolerant toflood/submergence

Extremely
important
3184
183
173
76
81
66

215
14
15
43
30

Not
important
14
615
84
92

24113

Important

Weighted
average

Rank

2.89
2.87
2.78
1.96
1.95

1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th

1.77

6th

Rice varieties Grown in the Study Area
There were about twenty varieties of rice grown in Thazi Township. The farmers are still growing
the local varieties which still suit the weather and soil type. During the survey period, there was nosummer paddy cultivation because of no supply of irrigation water from the dams. Therefore, thestudy included the only monsoon season rain-fed rice. Local cultivars are the primary source forfarmers to cope with changing environments. Genetic diversity gives a species or a population that
can have the ability to adapt to changing environments (Sthapit et al., 2007). Manaw Thukha was
the most popular rice variety among others and mainly grown by nearly half of the respondents(49.8%) (Table 6).

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Table 6 Rice varieties grown in Thazi Township
No.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.

RiceVarieties
Manaw Thukha
90 Days
Sat Thukha
Thukha Tun
Khun War
Yezin Thukha
Pale Thwe
Shwe Pyi Htae
100 Days
Shwe PoePyi Myanmar sein

F%

No.

101
29
17
16
64
4
4
3
32

49.8
14.3
8.4
7.9
3.0
2.0
2.0
2.0
1.5
1.5
1.0

12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.

RiceVarieties
Shwe Manaw
Thee Htet Yin
Byawt Tun
Mann Nga Sein
Shine NatTun Thiri
Taung Htate Pan
Shwe Manaw
Yadana Thukha
Byawt Thukha
Shwe Thwe Yin

F%

22
2
11
1
1
1
1
1
1

1.0
1.0
1.0
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5

CONCLUSION
Poverty prone rural dry zone still depends on rice cultivation and it is at the high risk under climatechange. Farmers change the rice varieties with shorter days to secure the moisture to get filled grainsin rain fed low land area. Nevertheless, they still prefer the high yielding variety most to reap highprofit. On the contrary, they are facing problems with so much weather variability resulted in poor
yield and profit. That is why more suitable variety for climate change resilient one, 90 Days variety
was gradually accepted by many farmers. It is recommended that income diversification is one of thegood strategies to combat the climate change impacts that more than half of farmers have non-farmincomes and many of them have income from livestock raising.
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Sthapit, B., Rana, R., Eyzaguirre, P. and Jarvis, D. 2008. The value of plant genetic diversity to resource-poor
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