Major Barriers

Identify the major barriers to improving agricultural productivity, employment and earning a living wage, and gaining access to food markets and adequate nutrition.

The major barriers needed to be addressed in order to improve productivity are:

• Ethnic Conflicts:

In Burma alone, there are 135 different ethnic groups. Within these groups are 8 major minority groups that do not identify themselves as Burmese. These include Karen, Chin, Arakhan, Karenni, Mon, Shan, Rohingya, and Kachin (UKCO, 2005). These groups grasp a strong hold to their identity and easily become offended when being referred to as another group

 Burma was recently a colony of the British Empire who forced several independent groups together into one nation. After Britain departed in 1948, major civil wars broke out as independent groups sought to claim a piece of the unclaimed land. With no group or leader under rule, the military took control and created a hierarchical government. The government does not take into consideration the various ethnic groups in the country but instead imposes laws that feed into the conflict. Those who try to protest are often brutally tortured, forced into labor, or killed by execution (UKCO). 

• Deforestation:

Deforestation is also another major issue that is one of the factors that are leading to more human rights violations. As stated by Tha, about 1.65 acres were cut down by government workers almost every day. Burmese people greatly depend on these rainforest for not only shelter but also for medical remedies and food source. With increased deforestation Burmese people will have fewer and fewer options on where to live as the majority of land is being turned into commercial farms by the government.

Pollution is also an ongoing problem in Burma. In recent years the air pollution has been 60% over the recommend maximum by the World Health Organization (Myanmar Times, 2012). The increasing pollution is mainly due to an increase in automobiles and also in increase in deforestation. Burma’s streets were once flourishing with various types of trees but over time streets sides have become very polluted and treeless. This is a human rights issues because it is greatly effecting the health of the Burmese people, but the government does not enforce very many policies to insure that the environment is not extremely polluted.

• Government Control:

The major issue is not about the ethnic conflicts but about the oppression of the Burmese people by the government who constantly violates their human rights-specifically the Rohingya people. The Rohingya group is amongst the most affected of all the groups. This group represents the Muslim population in Burma. The government along with anti-Rohingyas hold belief that the Rohingyas are illegal Bengali immigrants and therefore have no rights to citizenship. Even if the Rohingyas are illegal immigrants of Burma, they have no place to get deported to since they have been residing in Burma for several generations and have no relations with other nations. The government has not made any efforts in reaching out to the Rohingya but instead has come out strongly against any policy that would accommodate the Rohingyas. The Rohingyas, amongst other groups, have been denied various rights including the right to vote, hold leadership positions in jobs, or run for government offices.

 The violations include land confiscations, arbitrary arrests, forced labor, child labor, torture, human trafficking, rape and sexual violence, extrajudicial killings, and ethnic cleansing. These Burmese people have dispersed to nearby countries while some have decided to stay and live through these horrible conditions because the refugee camps are sometimes just as worst. Excluding the millions that that have been killed and displaced from their homes in the past years, hundreds of thousands of Burmese people have been killed and more than two million have been displaced (Genocide Watch, 2012).

Human rights violations are currently causing many devastating issues in Burma and are leading to an ongoing civil war. This war torn nation has very limited access to aid and food and it’s once plentiful and resourceful land has become a mass graveyard. The government has shifted to taking even more residential land and continues to benefit from it through foreign investment while the people work and cultivate it under terrible working conditions. The Burmese people most likely never actually eat anything they produce. The government exports it and makes major profits. Since agriculture is the most important economic driver and farming is a dominant form of employment, the people directly feel the effects of human rights violations when the government continues to seize land and violate the people's rights. Besides the fact that productivity greatly decreases, there are basically much fewer people working and producing crops as before causing a major decrease in market ready produce. This is a direct result of ethnic cleansing and other violations that eventually led to death, imprisonment, and emigration.

• Environmental destruction (monsoons): 

Unexpected monsoon every year flood towns and eventually ruin hundreds of acres of perfectly good crops. Sometimes families loose a whole year earning along with everything they invested if the monsoon hit. 

A majority of these are what eventually lead to human rights violations which impact food security. 

Farm size, Crops Grown, and Agricultural Practices

Describe the farm size, crops grown, and agricultural practices of a farm family.

Agriculture is the most dominant industry running the economy in Burma. It includes crop production, hunting, fishing, and forestry. This industry is responsible for about 60 of GDP income and 65% of the labor force. The most dominant crop produced is rice- which is very important in the people’s diets- teak, beans, pulses, and opiates. The crops are cultivated along river valleys, coastal areas, and other river areas. The farmers greatly depend on the monsoon but sometimes it either brings too much rain or too little rain.

 

Although Burma is quite well known for its agricultural practices, the people of Burma continue to suffer from hunger and poverty. A third of rural households do not have access to basic land but about half of Burma’s 45 million acre of arable land is uncultivated which leaves many of its people hungry. So how can Burma be one of the leading agricultural countries but have its people suffer from poverty and hunger? The Burma government violates its peoples’ rights in various ways but one major issue is the complete control over these agricultural practices. Instead of feeding its people, the government would rather export almost all of its products and make profit. This issue can no longer be ignored and needs to be addressed. 

 

Burmese Family

Define a typical subsistence farm family or poor urban family in your country. Include family size and composition, diet, education, and access to health care. 

A typical rural Burmese household is considerably large and usually consist of 3 generations of a family. That can include grandparents, aunts and uncles, and relatives as distant as 7^th cousins. Burmese children do not move out until marriage; most even continue to live with their parents after marriage. Because of this long practiced tradition, the eldest in the household-the parents or grandparents- hold almost all of the decision making power in the family. 

Education is highly respected in Burma but the quality is very low because it strongly centered on memorization and recitation. Education is only enforced for 5 years and after that a great majority dropout. Schools are poorly equipped and materials are often outdated. Although primary education in Burma is free, families hesitate to send their children to school because of high school fees that amount to about 100 US dollars. This greatly affects poor rural families because they not only have to pay for school fees but also transportation fees. There are also other discrimination factors that affect school attendance such as ethnic conflicts and gender inequality.

The majority of Burmese people live in rural areas, which means access to healthcare and hospitals is very limited. For that reason, Burmese families greatly depend on home remedies as their source of treatment. Health care is also very limited because the government roughly spends about 2% of its GDP on health care and doctors are in very short supply. 

A Burmese Rural Family:

• 3 generation household 
• Each member has 5 years or less of education
• Mothers and daughters may have little to no education 
• Diet consists of mainly rice
• limited access to health care (depend on home remedies)
• Bamboo houses with no running water or electricity

Effects of Human Rights Violations on Burma Agriculture

1. My focus country of Interest will be Burma (Myanmar). I am well aware of its agricultural background because I have worked on several community gardens with citizens of Burma who have told me about first hand experiences and struggles they have faced in producing and sustaining their own agricultural practices in Burma.

2. My topic of interest is Human rights in Burma. I have chosen this topic because I greatly disagree with how the government of Burma controls %100 of the agricultural land and practices in Burma. Because of this the citizens of Burma are greatly restricted on what they can produce, what they can sell, and how much they can profit from their production. Also women are greatly limited in their education and are often discriminated against when applying for higher education. 

Introduction

The reason why I have chosen to sign up for the GT Extended Learning class is to help me prepare for researching a topic of my interest in order to participate in The World Food Prize Iowa Youth Institute at Iowa State University and to participate in the Think Global School. I will be researching a global food security issue and by the end will have developed a possible solution to this issue. Food security is a major issue that needs to be addressed but is often not looked at as an result of gender inequality, lack of educational resources, and governmental conflict. Addressing these issues will greatly impact food insecurity.

The mission of the research paper is pick a region in the world affected by food insecurity and to address a specific country and topic in order to develope a solution.  My two possible regions of interest are Central Africa and Southeast Asia. My topics of interest are human rights, education, and conflict resolution. These are all topics that I am very passionate about and hope to be able to research more about. My overall goal for this research project is to gain essential research skills and also qualify for the Global Youth Institute to eve`ntually be able to attend the global internships.

Nosa Ali