The Ayeyarwaddy Delta, considered to be the “rice granary” of Myanmar, is a poor and remote rural area. Agriculture is the primary source of income for 80 % of families. The latter are affected by a high level of inequality regarding access to land, and by the increasing mechanisation of rice farms that reduces their employment opportunities and forces them to move. GRET, which has been present in this zone since 2008, has developed a network of some fifty farmers’ organisations to improve populations’ living conditions. It is now passing the baton to two local partners that will be in charge of supporting these organisations over the long term.

In the Bogale, Mawlawmyinegyun and Pyapon regions, GRET’s action contributed to creating, developing and structuring a network of farmers’ organisations. The latter provide non-financial services such as technical advice on agroecological market-gardening or management of rice production, as well as financial services such as leasing credit to purchase agricultural equipment, developed to meet the specific needs of farmers in the Delta. Managed by and for villagers, these organisations contribute to improving vulnerable families’ food and nutrition security, and their economic situation.

GRET is now preparing to transfer the provision of this support for farmers’ organisations to two local partners: the SAM social business and the Education for Kids (EfK) association. These two entities will benefit from GRET’s support to become organised and provide effective support to farmers’ organisations over the long term.

Objective of the project

The project consists of strengthening two local partners so that they can provide effective support to a network of farmers’ organisations in order to make access to essential services sustainable for farmers in the Ayeyarwaddy Delta. In this way, the project will make it possible to improve rural families’ living conditions by focusing on their food security and economic situation.

The project conducts three main activities:

• Strengthening of the social business SAM’s capacities to extend AYAM, the network of credit unions it supports in order to improve financial inclusion of farming families;
• Provision of technical support and advice to the EfK association to create a parallel social business for greater financial autonomy (vision, strategy, economic model);
• Provision of support to EfK for the development of managerial support and strengthening of capacities in non-financial farmers’ organisations (mainly technical assistance and support for management).

Expected results

Following the project, the expected results are:

• 2 local partners are strengthened
• 21 financial services cooperatives are being supported to provide loans to 2,637 members (including 59 % of women)
• 2 financial services cooperatives are set up
• 14 non-financial services cooperatives are being supported to manage rice production for 497 members (including 31 % of women)
• 1 network of 35 farming leaders is set up to support 350 market-gardeners’ agroecological transition