United Nation: Myanmar United Nation farming booming after coup

• UN report says results show a “significant expansion” of Myanmar’s opium economy.
• Opium poppy production in Myanmar increased dramatically after the 2021 military coup.
• Political and economic turmoil drove farmers to cultivate the crop.

BANGKOK – Opium poppy production in Myanmar increased dramatically after the 2021 military coup, according to the UN’s drug office, as political and economic turmoil drove farmers to cultivate the crop.

Following the military takeover in February 2021 and subsequent fighting between the junta and anti-coup rebels, the country’s economy has been paralyzed.

According to a United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report released Thursday, the area of land used for opium poppy cultivation will increase by one-third to just over 40,000 hectares in 2021-22, the first full growing season since the coup.

Potential output increased by nearly 90% over the previous year, reaching 790 tonnes.

According to the UNODC report, the results show a “significant expansion” of Myanmar’s opium economy.

“Economic, security, and governance disruptions that followed the military takeover of February 2021 have converged, and farmers… have had little option but to move back to opium,” UNODC regional representative Jeremy Douglas said.

The report, based on satellite imagery and fieldwork, stated that the downward trend in opium production seen from 2014 to 2020 had reversed.

Economic hit

According to the UNODC, Myanmar’s opium economy is worth around $2 billion, which equates to up to 3% of the country’s GDP in 2021.

Despite the increase in production, farm gate prices for opium have risen to around $280 per kilo, according to the report, a 69% increase over the previous year.

In Afghanistan, the world’s leading opium producer, the farm gate price is around $203.

However, the report stated that higher opium income is not translating into greater purchasing power for farmers due to higher petrol and fertiliser prices as a result of the Ukraine war.

According to the World Bank, a combination of the pandemic and the aftermath of the coup will cause Myanmar’s economy to contract by 18% in 2021.

In 2022, approximately 40% of the population was poor, and Douglas stated that financial hardship had forced many labourers to leave cities to work in poppy cultivation in the countryside.

Farmers require outside assistance to improve their livelihoods by growing other crops to compete with the opium economy, according to UNODC Myanmar country manager Benedikt Hofmann.

“Opium cultivation is really about economics, and it cannot be solved by destroying crops, which only exacerbates vulnerabilities,” he said.

According to the report, Myanmar’s Central Committee for Drug Abuse Control eradicated 1,403 hectares of opium poppies by the end of last year, a 70% decrease from the previous year.

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