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.