Shin Thu Kha, Sapanat Taung Pyan, Sapanat Gyi, Shwe Wah, Shwe Wah Mwe,
Nga Sein, Shwe Pu, Shwe Wah Htun, Yar Kyaw, R1, R2, Htun Pu, Zee Yar, Hin
Thwal Hla, Mote San and Aung Zay Ya. All are native.

Pale Thwe, Tayote ShweAa, Tayote Mwe, Shwe Yin Aye.
I don't know where they are from but those are mostly
grown in here.

I like the old ones like MeeDone, ThaChee but they're
small and low yield, so we don't grow them these
days. Now we are growing Sin Aekari 3, 700 Bo and
Ngwe Toe. Sin 3 have strong resistance to climate and high
yield. So, people like it. In my years of experience, there is
no rice with the quality of Sin 3 in our district.

I like Shwe Ant. They are good to eat. I used to grow Manaw
Thuka before. It didn't work well with our region.
People mostly grow Shwe Ant in here.

Must have the market for it, must have strong resistance to
climate because of heavy rain in our district, must be
high yield, those are the main things.

I grow Pale Thwe because of the yield. I grow
Shwe Aa because it is good to eat. I mostly grow those
two.

Sometimes we grow direct planting. When the water is scare, we use
transplanting method. Firstly, sow the seeds to get seedlings in one plot of field.
After 45 days, plough all the fields and transplant the seedlings. In next 2
months and half, they are ready to harvest. The straws are used to feed the
cows and to grow mushrooms. Nowadays, we don’t get a lot. Due to the
ploughing with machines, the straws are being pressed under them in the fields.

1, Put the seeds loosely in a bag and sink it in fresh water
for one night. 2, Then, drain off water and cover up for
two days and the seeds germinate. 3, Plough with machines
and sow seeds to the soil. 4, After 15-20 days, give fertilizers
to the seedling according to their needs. 5, After 5 months
from the time of start sowing, they are ready to harvest.
6, Sell them to the agents without husking the grains.

1, Sink seeds in the saline water. 2, Sow seeds on the soil to
get seedlings. 3, After, 15 days, plough with machines and
transplant seedlings in the fields. 4, After 128 days, they are
ready to harvest. We use nitrogen fertilizer.

1, Before planting, make sure the soil is well-balanced first.
2, Sink the seeds in water for one day. 3, Sow seeds to the soil
to get seedlings for about 1 month. 4, Plough the fields and
grow the seedlings on the soil. 5, After 25-30 days, give
fertilizer (Cow manure and some synthetic fertilizer) to the
paddies. 6, After 6 months, they are ready to harvest. We use
the straws as cow food.

There are different steps depand on which method
you use. We use singular plantation method. We plant
the seedlings first and transplant them on the soil in two
inches away. Some people like to cover with rice husks so
that it's easier to do weeding. But we just irrigate slowly
depending on the size of the rice plants, so that not much
weed can grow and the soil is soft. After 15 to 20 days later,
each plant grow with three to five branches. This kind of
method is good for yield. All the rice will be the same size,
same seeds. It takes 135 days from seeds plantation to
harvesting for Sin Aekari 3. People use fertilizer and
compound depands on the quality of their soil. Mostly the
soil of Moe Nyin is good. We harvest both by hands and
machine. People don't really use machine. After that the rice
grains are sun-dried and milded. The polished rice are stored
in granary and the other side-products such as straws are
used as animal feeds or are used to grow other crops like
garlic and potato.

We grow seeds and we plough with machine.
We irrigate later. We plant the seedlings again by hands.
We put fertilizers and also do weeding. It takes
2 months to harvest.

We buy seeds from agriculture department.
We firstly grow seeds and we plough. Then
we plant the seedlings by hands. Before we
plough with animals but now we do by machine.
It takes 4 months from seed plantation to
harvesting. After we harvest, we go to the city
and mild the paddy into rice.

We buy seeds from agricultural shop in Nyaung Shwe and
grow seeds and we plough with machine.
After 4 months, we harvest and we send them to market.

For Pale Thwe, I bought the seeds from agriculture
department. After two years of growing, I keep
the seeds from my own field. For Shwe Aa, we don't
buy from agriculture department. So, the seeds are not
very good. But we keep the seeds from my own field.
We grow seedlings and then plough with machine.
Then we transplant by-hands again. It takes 4 months
from seed plantation to harvesting.

1 tin of seeds cost around 10,000 ks that can cover 1
acre of land. Ploughing cost another 30,000ks per acre.
The labour cost for growing seedlings is 35,000ks to
40,000ks. Synthetic fertilizer, if used, will add the cost,
requiring one bag per acre from planting to harvesting.
Harvest using machines will cost around 50,000ks pe
r acre giving ready-to-sell rice in husk. But if used labour,
the cost will be around be around 45,000ks per acre,
leaving only sheaf of paddy which will cost another
10,000 or 20,000 to get rice in husk. So, let's say the cost
of growing rice per acre is around 400,000ks, if that patch
gives a yield of 100tin, at market price of 5000ks per tin,
we will get only 500,000ks of income. So, the profit over
the growing period of 6 months will be merely 100,000ks.

Normally we get 5000 ks for 1 tin of rice. If the paddies quality is good, 3 tins
of rice can make one bag of rice. Although there are expenses in growing rice,
we still have a profit if we have high yield

We have to buy 1 tin of seeds with 7,500 ks. In order to grow
them, we have to give invest a lot of money on renting
ploughing machines, harvesting, labor cost and so on. So, we
can get profit only if the yield is high and the price is good.
Otherwise, we don’t get profit margin.

The rice variety we grow has good price and market demand.
We sells 1 tin of rice seeds with 13,000 ks.

Here, 1 tin contains 20 small baskets. The usual one before
contains 16 small baskets. We buy 1 tin of seeds with 7,500ks.
Although the value of rice changes, the farmers can only have
very little profit.

He sells 3 tin bag of rice with 20,000mmk.
He thinks he get enough profits because he can eat and sell.

The price of polished rice are getting down and down. The labor rate in here is very expensive. We have to pay 8,000 ks to 10,000 ks per day. The price of polished rice is 4,000 ks, 6,000 ks the most per tin. The production cost is high. We don't make much profit. Chinese buy our rice before because we are near the border. But now the borders are closed and difficult to sell them. The price of the polished rice is decided by the traders and we can't complain because otherwise we have no place to sell.

The seeds are 10,000 ks per tin. We sell the paddy
for 8,000 ks per tin. We sell polished rice for
30,000 ks per bag.

The seeds are 25,000 ks per tin in here. And we can grow
that one tin of seeds in an acre or one and a half acre
depending on the quality. We sell the paddy
for 12,000, 14,000 ks per tin.

I buy a small bag of seeds with 20,000 ks from
agriculture department. I can grow around an acre with
that bag.

In the past, the farmers exchanged the good quality seeds
each other. Now, we get seeds from seed farms.

Exchange seeds with other farmers. Buy seeds from seeds farm.
Non-native seeds become popular these days.

The seeds which they use are passed down by their ancestors.

Mainly from Moe Nyin Agriculture department.
But if you buy from there, it can be quite expensive.
We also save the good seeds and share or trade with friends.
If you want to get seeds from strangers, you can buy
cheaper than from Agriculture department.

We keep the seeds from our own field if they're
good, we use them again. I also get the seeds
from my friends.

We keep the seeds from our own field if they're good
and if not, I buy from the shop and I also get from my
friends sometimes.

I buy them from agriculture department. And after I
grow them, I keep the seeds by myself. When the seeds
are not good anymore, I buy them again from
agriculture department.

When I was young, in the days of my father, the best grain
barers in the field are individually selected for saving seed.
But that method is so laborious that these days, seed are
only acquired from agri-research farms and alike.

We save the rice seeds only in October as the weather is good and quality is
better. We don’t do any special selections from paddy fields for saving rice
seeds. Just randomly take the seeds from the harvest.

Normally, we save seeds from our farm. We save 2 tins of
seeds to grow in a acre for next year. But if the seeds from
other farm can give high yield, we buy them from their owner.
We don’t do any special selection to save seeds.

Ye, we save rice seeds from our farm. For good quality seeds,
we use them for about three years continuously. We choose
pure and best quality seeds from the selected plots of paddy
fields. We also harvest them separately. These seeds are put
into clean granny sacks and stored in the controlled 13-15%
moisture room.

To save rice seeds, we take some of the paddies from the harvest.
Then, sink in the water to test the good quality seeds. If the
seeds stay at the bottom of the water, they are regarded as good
seeds. If they float on the water, they can be regarded as bad
seeds. Then, dry in the sun and store in the dry place.

We don't select and keep by ourselves. The agriculture
department does. They plant the seeds in nusery and when
they get seedlings, they transplant them again. They look
after the seedlings and check for the best quality plants. If
they find any bad plants, they throw away. Then they
transplant the best ones again in small area of the field.
After they havest, they collect the seeds. They will sell those
seeds to the farmers.

We choose the certain amount of good quality paddy
and keep them in a bag.

The paddy are sundried and we choose the good quality
seeds. Then we put them in the bags.

After harvesting, we keep the seeds in the sun for about three
days. To store them, we put them in a round bamboo basket
by covering with cow manure.

We had one experience that the saved seeds didn’t give the
right numbers seedlings I expected.

If the saved seeds are not good enough to grow, we eat them or feed the animals.

No, they have never been wasted. We have to make sure they
are safe and sound from rats.

In order to store the rice after harvesting, we keep them
in good air circulation room without exposing the direct
sunlight but not too dark.

We haven’t calculated them. But for one acre, we get average
40 tins depending on the pests and weather.

between 80 to 100 tin per acre depand on region.

In the past, we use animals in ploughing. Nowadays, machines are being used.

The differences are using animals and natural fertilizer in the
past and using machines and synthetic fertilizer nowadays.
Manual era was good but now mechanical era can save time
and labors.

The process of growing rice changed from manual to
mechanical. Next thing is the way of saving good quality
seeds.

The differences between in the past and now are ploughing with
animals and machines and using natural and synthetic fertilizers.
The seeds nowadays can give higher yield than before.

Now is easier beacuse he can do with machine.
Time saving, energy saving and doesn't need to take care of
cows.

When I worked in my father's field, we grew MeeDone.
The plants are tall and take 6 months to harvest.
The quantity rate is not much, only 40, 50 tin. Before, the
farmers don't know how to use fertilizers. When the
socialist regime (by general Nay Win) came, they were
taught and forced the farmers to use fertilizers. We,
the farmers are addicted to fertilizers now. We don't know
anymore how to grow rice without fertilizers. And now the
organic growing gets popular and they're asking us to stop
using fertilizers. In Myanmar, even though we have
agriculture department, they can't help us or advice us
about what kind of fertilizers we should use or what does
our soil need. So, the farmers are using the fertilizers by
guess. People still plough with animals but are getting to use
the machine more and more.

We use animals to plough before and now we use the
machine.

They didn't have good quilty, high yield seeds at
that time and they used cows to plough.

The ones that my parents used to grow are long and
low yield but good to eat. The ones that I buy from
agriculture apartment are high yield. We used a lot of
cow manure but now we don't have much cow manure,
so we have to use more fertilizer.

Nowadays, we don’t have many difficulties in growing rice. We don’t have to
use many labors. In some places, small dam and irrigation canals are built to
solve the water problem.

Last year, our area was affected by drought so the farmers
got low yield.

The expenses are high. We have to spend a lot of money on
buying seeds, renting ploughing machines, pesticides and
ertilizers. So, the expenses and income are used to be imbalanced.
The weather can also destroy the paddy fields. The farmers needs
to pay monthly interest for government’s loan whether their
farming business shows loss or not.

There is no consistency of the price. The traders only give
low price and we have to sell to them anyway because we
don't have other choice.

In here, we don't have river or stream water and much
rain. It is the biggest struggle.

We don’t store rice as we don’t have much space. We sell them
to the agent as soon as we harvest.

We don't sell the paddy and we keep them for ourselves
to eat.

Nga Sein, Shwe Wah, Shwe Wah Mwe, Shwe Pu, Shwe Wah Htun, Yar Kyaw,
R2, R1, Aung Zay Ya. They don’t have any good points. Low yield and tough.

Nga Kywal, Taung Pyan Gyi, Shwe Wah Htun and Nga Sein.
The strength is they have good taste.

Lone Pu and Kout Nyein. They are resistant to climate and their
seedlings can be grown till 2 months.

MeeDoneWarKyar, MeeDoneAmaeKyar, Thachee, MiKhinTa.
It takes too long to grow them and has low yield. So people
don't grow them anymore.

yway paddy. It is tough and hard to chew, so people don't
eat them anymore. It has high yield.

Phin Mae. It is soft and good to eat. It is very famous in
Kayah. But we only get 20 to 30 bags per acre.

**This English version is a draft. The translated Burmese version has some differences.