Farmers plan to cultivate
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A group of farmers from Lewe township in Nay Pyi Taw were preparing Wednesday to plough 200 hectares of farmland that had been seized by the army.
The army grabbed the farmland in Nyaungmoatseik, Ywathitgyi, Gutaung and Thayaraye villages from Lewe township in 2004 and 2005.
More than 100 farmers planned to use 28 pairs of draught cattle to plough fields in preparation to cultivate paddy.
The army confiscated the land, which can produce over 100 baskets of paddy, under the pretext that it was pasture, forcing the farmers to sell it at an unfair price. The farmers were not satisfied with the situation, which they saw as seizure of farmland. Though the army has recently come up with compensation, the farmers have faced hardship due to the situation. Businessmen close to the families of army personnel are exploiting the grabbed farmland, the farmers said.
“We have to give 12 baskets of paddy to the army. If we grow green gram [also known as mung beans] in the summertime, we have to pay [the army] 10,000 kyats for one acre [about Bt317 per 0.4 hectare]. The state’s poverty-reduction programme brings no benefits to the farmers,” said a resident of Tharyaraye village.
“Our five acres of farmland were grabbed by the army and our family has suffered. We cannot send our children to school. As the army has not given our farmlands back to us, we are preparing to resume farming our fields. We will be satisfied if we get back our land,” a local farmer said.
In 2005 and 2009, the army paid compensation of 200,000 kyats per acre of farmland and 100,000 kyats per acre of hillside cultivation land in 2010.
