The Republic of the Union of Myanmar Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation Public Disclosure Authorized Myanmar Agricultural Development Support Project Public Disclosure Authorized Social Assessment Final report Public Disclosure Authorized October 31, 2014 Public Disclosure Authorized Table of Contents Lists of Acronyms .......................................................................................................................................... v Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................................... vi Section 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 The Project .......................................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Objectives of the SA ............................................................................................................................ 3 1.3 Methodology ....................................................................................................................................... 4 1.3.1 Sampling ....................................................................................................................................... 5 1.3.2 Free, prior and informed consultations ....................................................................................... 5 1.3.3 Number of interviewees .............................................................................................................. 5 1.4 Limitations of the works ..................................................................................................................... 6 1.4.1 Time limitation ............................................................................................................................. 6 1.4.2 Difficulties in acquiring demographic data .................................................................................. 6 1.4.2 Need for site specific Social Assessment ..................................................................................... 6 Section 2: Legal, Policy and Institutional Framework ................................................................................... 7 Section 3: Sector Framework ........................................................................................................................ 8 Section 4: Geographic, Demographic and Socioeconomic Backgrounds of the Potential Project Areas ..... 9 4.1 Sagaing Region .................................................................................................................................... 9 4.1.1 Overview of the irrigable areas in Sagaing Region .................................................................... 12 4.2 Mandalay Region .............................................................................................................................. 15 4.2.1 Overview of the irrigable areas in Mandalay Region ................................................................. 17 4.3 Bago Region ...................................................................................................................................... 22 4.3.1 Overview of the irrigable areas in Bago Region ......................................................................... 24 Section 5: Overview of the Studied Irrigation Schemes ............................................................................. 29 5.1 Ethnic minorities in the studied schemes ......................................................................................... 30 5.1.1 Sin Thay ...................................................................................................................................... 30 5.1.2 North Yama ................................................................................................................................ 30 5.1.3 Swa Chaung ................................................................................................................................ 30 5.1.4 Male Nattaung ........................................................................................................................... 30 5.2 Religious minorities in studied irrigation areas ................................................................................ 30 i Section 6: Findings of Social Assessment - Socioeconomic Information .................................................... 31 6.1 Farming systems ............................................................................................................................... 31 6.1.1 Farmland types........................................................................................................................... 31 6.1.2 Access to land ............................................................................................................................ 31 6.1.3 Farmland distributions ............................................................................................................... 32 6.1.4 Cropping patterns ...................................................................................................................... 34 6.1.5 Farming techniques .................................................................................................................... 36 6.2 Market ............................................................................................................................................... 40 6.2.1 Input market .............................................................................................................................. 40 6.2.2 Credit market ............................................................................................................................. 42 6.2.3 Labour market ............................................................................................................................ 44 6.2.4 Product market .......................................................................................................................... 45 6.3 Access to irrigation water ................................................................................................................. 47 6.3.1 Villages with different levels of irrigated availability ................................................................. 47 6.3.2 Farming activities as per availability of irrigated water ............................................................. 48 6.3.3 Constraints to accessing irrigation water .................................................................................. 50 6.3.4 Socioeconomic differences caused by access to water ............................................................. 52 6.3.5 Impacts of limited water availability on social relations ........................................................... 54 6.3.6 Community water management system.................................................................................... 54 6.3.7 Community collective actions in seeking water......................................................................... 55 6.3.8 Payment for water ..................................................................................................................... 57 6.4 Access to extension services ............................................................................................................. 58 6.4.1 Attendance in agricultural training ............................................................................................ 59 6.5 Land ................................................................................................................................................... 59 6.5.1 Land tenure ................................................................................................................................ 59 6.5.2 Issues on land ............................................................................................................................. 60 6.5.3 Examples of land disputes originating from the military regime ............................................... 61 6.5.5 Reclassification of farmland type from Ya to Le and vice versa ................................................ 63 6.5.6 Land sold to outsiders ................................................................................................................ 63 6.5.7 Land improvements schemes .................................................................................................... 64 6.6 Indebtedness ..................................................................................................................................... 67 6.7 Migration ........................................................................................................................................... 68 ii 6.8 Vulnerability ...................................................................................................................................... 68 6.8.1 The vulnerable groups according to the community ................................................................. 68 6.8.2 Other vulnerable groups identified by the study ....................................................................... 69 6.9 Gender .............................................................................................................................................. 70 6.9.1 Women-headed