Project Surveys

Summary of Myanmar Food Security Policy Project Surveys and Publications 

Myanmar aquaculture value chains scoping survey – October-December 2014

Description: The Food Security Policy Project (FSP) conducted the first in depth study of the structure, conduct and performance of aquaculture value chains in Myanmar from October to December 2014. The study was based on semi-structured in-depth interviews with 251 actors in Myanmar’s aquaculture value chain. Research focused in particular on four clusters with high concentrations of fish farms in Ayeyarwady and Yangon regions, within 25–50 km of Myanmar’s largest city, Yangon, and on Yangon's main fish wholesale market (San Pya). Interviews focused mainly on actor behavior (e.g. asset ownership, land access and tenure, credit arrangements, acquisition of production inputs, production technologies, marketing behavior and sales arrangements).

Survey outputs:

Journal articles

Research reports

Policy briefs

Mon State Rural Household Survey – April-May 2015

Description: The Mon State Rural Household Survey (MSRHS) was implemented in Mon State in southeastern Myanmar in April-May 2015. The survey aimed to collect information on the characteristics of livelihoods in rural Mon as a basis for informing state level development policy. The household survey  covered a sample of 1,627 households in all 10 townships (sub-districts) in Mon, representing the entire rural population of the state (1.2 million people). A community questionnaire was implemented in all 143 communities where the household survey was implemented. The household survey included modules designed to capture data on livelihood activities identified as being of particular importance in Mon: rice farming, smallholder rubber, and small-scale marine fishing. The community survey focused principally on village-wide infrastructure and the availability of services, with additional sections on the environment and natural disasters, conflict, land, and prices.

Survey outputs:

Research reports

Policy briefs

Myanmar Aquaculture Agriculture Survey– April-May 2016 

Description: The Myanmar Aquaculture Agriculture Survey (MAAS) was implemented in April-May 2016 in four townships of Ayeyarwady and Yangon regions, close to the city of Yangon. Respondents from 1,102 households were interviewed, representing a total population of 37,390 households. MAAS was designed with the following objectives (1) Generate baseline information on fish and paddy farm yields, size, tenure status, management practices, and profitability. (2) Quantify the relative advantages of, and tradeoffs between, aquaculture and agriculture by estimating the size of growth linkages and employment multipliers in the local rural economy. (3) Compare the relative performance of large- and small-scale commercial aquaculture in terms of spillover effects, demand for labor, productivity, and returns. (4) Evaluate patterns of rural-rural and rural-urban migration, agricultural mechanization, and the extent and terms of access to credit in aquaculture and agriculture. 

In order to address these questions, MAAS adopted a two stage sampling strategy to facilitate comparison of the rural economy and livelihoods in groups of village tracts with high concentrations of fish farms (referred to as the aquaculture cluster), and in areas where paddy cultivation was the main farming activity (the agriculture cluster). The MAAS survey instrument was comprised of three elements: (1) A household section, containing modules on household composition, migration, employment, land and asset ownership, production of non-field crops, and consumption expenditures. (2) An aquaculture section, comprised of modules on: pond acquisition and tenure status; input utilization and costs (including labor); harvesting and marketing; trends in production over the preceding 10 years; and credit utilization. (3)  An agriculture section, incorporating modules on: land ownership and tenure; irrigation; agricultural machinery and draft animal use; input application; marketing practices and costs; changes in production practices over the last decade; and access and utilization of agricultural credit. A short community survey was conducted with small focus groups of knowledgeable long-term residents in 73 of the 78 selected enumerations areas covered by the household survey. The questionnaire was designed to generate additional data on the physical accessibility of the communities, changing village populations, historical wage data, landownership structures and historical inventories of non-farm enterprises over the period 2011-2016, including those playing a role in aquaculture and agriculture value chains.

Survey outputs:

Journal articles

Book Chapters

Research Reports

Policy briefs

Research highlights

Yangon Mechanization Cluster Survey – August 2016 

Description: The Yangon Mechanization Cluster Survey was designed to capture information on Myanmar’s agricultural machinery market, during a period of rapid growth and transformation. Scoping interviews were conducted pre-survey. These interviews indicated that most of the agricultural machinery supply businesses in Yangon, including many of the largest, had branches located in a commercial compound in western Yangon, forming by far the largest cluster of such enterprises in Myanmar. A census of businesses in the cluster was implemented prior to the survey. Thirty businesses selling agricultural machinery and 27 shops selling spare parts for agricultural machines were listed. Three machinery suppliers and five spare parts shops declined to participate in the survey, giving a total sample size of 49 businesses. The survey instrument include questions on the location and date of establishment of other branches, sales volumes, product assortment, finance and customer credit, vertical integration, and service provision.

Survey outputs:

Research highlights

Rural Economy & Agriculture Dry Zone Survey - April-May 2017

Description: The Rural Economy and Agriculture Dry Zone Survey (READZ) survey was conducted in April and May 2017 to generate a detailed picture of livelihoods, cropping systems, farming practices, irrigation access and the state of the wider rural economy in the Dry Zone - one of the country’s most important agricultural regions, and home to more than 10 million people. READZ was comprised of household and community survey components. Prior to the READZ household survey, scoping studies identified the main agro-ecologies, cropping systems and forms of irrigation access present across the three main regions of the CDZ (Mandalay, Magway and Sagaing). Four townships, containing the main sets of conditions identified during scoping were selected for inclusion in the household survey. 

The READZ household survey was implemented in April 2017. 1578 rural households, selected at random from 100 communities (also randomly selected) were interviewed to collect data on households’ activities over the past year. The survey instrument contained modules on household composition, migration, employment, land and asset ownership, irrigation, agricultural machinery and draft animal use, input uses, changes in production practices over the last decade, and access and utilization of agricultural credit. Agriculture modules focused in particular on the crops green gram, groundnut, sesame and paddy.

The READZ community survey was designed to track temporal changes occurring at the broader ‘landscape’ through use of multi-year recall questions. The community survey instrument included modules on the recent history of: village populations; access to educational facilities; modes of transport and travel times to nearby urban areas; access to irrigation facilities; crops grown; use of agricultural machinery; wages, labor costs and labor availability; inventories of agriculture related and non-farm businesses; land ownership; access to and terms of credit; climate change.  Community questionnaires were administered during group interviews with four to six knowledgeable men and women in the 100 communities where the READZ household survey was implemented. To increase the survey’s spatial coverage and lend it greater statistical power, the survey was extended to a further 200 villages in ten additional Dry Zone townships (total 300 communities in 14 townships). These were also selected purposively, based on the main cropping systems present and distance from major urban areas, with the intent of incorporating a broad range of geographies.

Survey outputs:

Research Reports

Research highlights

READZ off-farm value chain surveys – December 2017

Description: Four surveys of actors in off-farm value chain segments were implemented in the Dry Zone, to complement the READZ household surveys. These are as follows: 1) Agricultural machinery suppliers; 2) Agricultural machinery outsourcing service providers; 3) Oil mills; 4) Pulses and oilseed traders. Together, the surveys aimed to establish a baseline of data on upstream (machinery supply and rental) and downstream (oilseed and pulse trading, and oilseed milling) segments of key Dry Zone agricultural value chains.  Sampling was conducted using lists of enterprises compiled from data provided by traders’ and millers’ associations and commodity exchange centers in all major urban areas and commercial centers of the Dry Zone (Mandalay, Magway, Monywa, Shwebo, and Pakkoku). A list of rural oil mills and rental service providers was obtained from villages covered by the earlier READZ household survey. Enterprises were selected from these lists at random for interview or, in the case of machinery dealerships and urban oil mills, selected with 100% probability. The total number of interviews conducted was 742, comprised of: 182 oil mills (of which 38 rural, 144 urban); 376 traders; 123 machine rental service providers (including 43 combine harvester owners and 92 four-wheel tractor owners); 60 machinery dealerships. Every questionnaire included questions on asset ownership and acquisition, human capital, business history, source of investment capital, employment, seasonality, costs and returns, product and service assortment, historical trade volumes, and location of customers and suppliers.

Survey outputs:

Research Reports

Shan Agriculture and Rural Economy Survey – May-October 2018

Description: The Shan Agriculture and Rural Economy Survey (SHARES) was implemented from June to October 2018. SHARES was comprised of household and community components, designed to produce a detailed picture of livelihoods, farming systems and the rural economy in southern Shan, and the dynamics of recent changes in each of these areas. Particular attention was paid to production of maize and pigeon pea - two of the main commercial crops grown in this area. The surveys were designed to address four key research questions. (1) How has the welfare of rural households in South Shan been affected by the introduction of hybrid maize? (2) What factors have facilitated agricultural commercialization, diversification and, specialization, and how have these processed affected incomes, food security and resilience?  (3) How do conflict, infrastructure development, trade policies and agricultural commercialization interact? (4) What practices could improve the performance of maize and pigeon pea farmers? For the household component of the survey, a total 1563 households were interviewed in 99 enumeration areas in 9 townships in southern Shan, representing a population of 201,285. Enumeration areas were selected by a stratified two-stage sampling. Areas with known security issues or no maize/pigeon pea cultivation were excluded. The Department of Population drew a systematic sample of Enumeration Areas (EA) with probability proportional to size, using the sample frame of national census. The household survey instrument include modules on the following: non-farm employment; migration; assets & housing; land; agriculture; maize and pigeon pea cultivation; agricultural machinery use, credit; consumption

The SHARES community component covered 323 villages in 12 townships in Southern Shan. Ninety-nine of the selected villages overlapped with the enumeration areas selected for inclusion in the SHARES household survey. The remaining 224 community survey villages were selected randomly with probability proportional to size. Community questionnaires were administered during group interviews. The survey instrument focused on capturing multi-year recall data on key community characteristics, and was divided into modules covering population, physical and social infrastructure, crop cultivation patterns, agricultural wages and migration, number and type of rural enterprises, access to credit, perceptions of climate change, and experience of conflict. This approach was adopted to gain insights into changes occurring within the rural economy at the ‘landscape’ level that would complement ‘micro’ level data from the household survey.

SHARES off-farm value chain surveys – December 2018

Three surveys of off-farm value chain segments were designed to complement the household component of the SHARES survey by generating data on three sets of actors: (1) maize traders; (2) agricultural input suppliers; (3) agricultural machinery supply businesses. A total of 271 maize traders, 112 agri-input suppliers and 27 machinery supply businesses were interviewed. The sample of respondents selected for interview included all maize traders identified during prior scoping activities in 9 townships in southern Shan where the SHARES household survey was conducted, as well as in the major trading centers of Lashio and Muse. Agricultural input suppliers in all these locations were listed during earlier scoping activities and a sub-sample was drawn at random.  The trader and input supplier survey instruments included modules on numbers of maize value chain enterprises operating in the surrounding area, maize procurement arrangements, maize handling activities, maize sales, transport and transaction costs, employment, business assets, provision of agricultural inputs and services, credit relations, experience of shocks, and access to and dissemination of information. The machinery dealership survey included questions on the location and year of establishment of branches, machinery sales, credit provision and service provision. 

Other publications

Research report