Farm registration extended
Play
Myanmar's Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation said that the deadline for registering farmland has been extended to the end of the next fiscal year, despite widespread criticism that the process benefits large companies to the detriment of farmers.
The deadline had been this month but is now extended to the end of March next year.
Officials at the Settlement and Land Records Department are also visiting villages to provide farmland registration service to farmers, officials said.
The government has granted 9 million acres of farmland to the private sector, including conglomerates, for industrial farming, but only one-third of this has been used for industrial zones and farming. The remaining two-thirds were grabbed from farmers, said officials who asked not to be named.
Disputes over farmland are raging across the country with those that originated before the 2012 Farmland Law among the thorniest.
Phyoe Phyu, a lawyer at legal firm Purple Equity, said a law for settling disputes over farmland was needed.
The Farmland Investigation Commission said the army seized 247,077 acres of farmland for the construction of bases.
Hsu Mon of the Open Society of South Dagon Township called for the farmland registration period to be extended at the meeting with government ministers and 46 workers’ organisations at Myanmar Peacemaking Centre on February 23.
