More than 3.1 million acres of monsoon crops including bean, sesame, and paddy will be cultivated in the 25 townships of five districts in Magway Region this year, according to the Region’s Agriculture Department.
During monsoon, a total of 634,475 acres of monsoon paddy, 20,962 acres of maize, 489,390 acres of groundnut, 1,113,130 acres of sesame, 13,070 acres of sunflower, 475,488 acres of green gram, 184,449 acres of pigeon peas, 192,261 acres of cotton and 15,008 acres of sugarcane are being put under cultivation this year. “Magway region grows the sesame mostly. There are more than 1.1 million acres of monsoon sesame. Then, Magway region also grows monsoon paddy and variety of beans including groundnuts, green grams and pigeon peas. The department is negotiating with the growers to choose the long term crops to suit the changing climate,” said Director U Lin Myat of Regional Agriculture Department.
The land samples are sent to the laboratory before planting. Then, the department is providing the awareness training courses to the local farmers to be able to use the fertilizer systematically, to use the pedigree seeds, to protect against the insects, to maintain the post-harvest crops systematically, said U Khine Min, the official of Regional Agriculture Department. Magway region has already grown 2.5 per cent of monsoon paddy, 76.57 per cent of maize, 47.29 per cent of groundnut, 92.43 per cent of sesame, 18.73 per cent of sunflower, 33.35 per cent of green gram, 85.54 per cent of pigeon peas, 4.36 per cent of cotton and 109.20 per cent of sugarcane, thereby having exceeded the target of this year, according to the official statistics of the Regional Agriculture Department —Zayyatu (Magway)
(Translated by Hay Mar)
