UK-aid funded Dana facility and Myanmar Economic Association jointly organized a workshop on Agricultural Value Chain Finance: policy, practice and inclusion in Yangon

Organized by UK-aid funded DaNa facility and Myanmar Economic Association, a workshop on Agricultural Value Chain Finance: policy, practice and inclusion was held in Yangon, Friday.

The workshop brought together stakeholders from the Government, the private sector, NGOs, donor organizations, and research institutes to review the current status of policy and practice, promising reforms and developments, to discuss opportunities and to expand access to agricultural finance in the coming years. The Australian Center for International Agricultural Research has been supporting collaborative research for development of agriculture sector in Myanmar for about thirty years.

Ambassador, Australian Embassy (Myanmar), H.E. Andrea Faulkner said “From an Australian perspective, we really see the importance of agriculture in Myanmar as the economy in Myanmar society and we are very pleased to support and important discussions which is about increasing access to finance for farmers. All stakeholders, all of the groups that are interested, can contribute to finding solutions. This is the really important element, … make a contribution opening up access to finance who really allow farmers to increase their inputs and to stimulate invention and to produce growth...”

Agriculture represents over a quarter of the country’s GDP and less than 2% of private-sector commercial bank lending goes primarily to the agriculture sector.

Deputy Minister, Ministry of Planning and Finance, H.E. Maung Maung Win said “As the agriculture stands a big role of country’s GDP, the government has been providing loans since years ago. The two steps loan from Japan with fair interest are also being given to farmers for agricultural machines. The government is making efforts to give loans not only to paddy growers, but also other crops.” 

The expert at the workshop pointed out that boosting agriculture productivity and encouraging inclusive development through the agricultural finance value chains is an important issue for Myanmar’s economy.

Finance Advisor, Dana Facility, Tom Moyes said “Myanmar has very large and important agricultural sector…..There needs to be probably some regulatory upgrade and changes but also we need to help banks and financial institutions to really understand the sector and really develop the kind of products…Really what farmers need is markets. …And that really depends on the farmers selling through those relationships so the value chain financing is all about just developing and much more modern, systematic and focus approach to financing specific crops”. 

Agriculture represents more than a quarter of the country’s economy and also provides employment to over two thirds of the population in Myanmar.

(Myanmar International TV Channel: https://www.myanmaritv.com/news/policy-practice-inclusion-workshop-agricultural-value-chain-finance-held )

​