Today we celebrate Farmers’ Day or more appropriately, we celebrate the many contributions of farmers and agricultural workers to our nation. Far too often, Farmers’ Day is an opportunity for those in power to give speeches about the importance of farmers, while doing nothing to improve their lives, or genuinely compensate them for the wide-ranging contributions they bring Myanmar. In the new Myanmar which we are all fighting now to build, this two-faced approach to the agricultural sector must end. We must consider seriously the role that farmers play in our country.

Thirty years ago, agriculture was the backbone of Myanmar’s industry, employing 70% of our workforce. Today that number is much lower, but the significance of the agricultural industry has not dwindled. We import very little in the way of food. In fact, we export much of what we produce. Even with a decreased share of Myanmar’s workers, farmers do not only feed all of our people, they bring foreign money into our economy. It is this foreign money which has allowed the industrialization and development of Myanmar which has resulted in millions of workers transitioning from farm labour to other industries. Industries which allow us to provide for ourselves, and stand on our own two feet as a country. We often forget when marveling at the industrial boom our nation has experienced that this was possible only on the backs of the farmers whose economic contributions paid for the needed infrastructure.

And yet despite this, farmers have routinely been ignored and set aside by governments. Farmers’ Day is a time for politicians to make speeches, but a day farmer themselves cannot afford to take off from the back breaking labour which has elevated an entire country, but which barely pays for their needs. For Myanmar to truly know peace and prosperity, we must take care of those who hold up the nation, not only those who sit at the top.

This last year has been particularly horrendous for farmers. Crop harvests have been stolen and agricultural land has been bombed or burned by a cruel military in an attempt to starve out a civilian population unwilling to accept 60 more years of military dictatorship. As the military have left the cities, spreading their campaign of terror to rural areas where their crimes are less likely to be recorded, it is often farming villages which have felt the brunt of the military’s savagery. Rapes, murders, torture, and the burning of entire villages are commonplace. It is therefore just that we recognize the contribution that farmers have made to the defense and protection of our nation.

Just as the national hero Saya San rose up against the unjust and cruel exploitations of colonial powers in 1930, triggering a revolution that would last for three years, so too have farmers been pivotal in every uprising our nation’s history. Many of the PDF and LDF groups today risking their lives in the jungles, plains, forests, mountains, hills, and valleys of Myanmar left their homes and lives as farmers to take up arms against yet an other unjust regime. Myanmar owes more to her farmers than can be expressed, and in the wake of the disaster the military has triggered, we will have greater need of our farmers than ever before.

In the new Myanmar, we must stop paying lip service on Farmers’ Day. We must resolve to address the suffering of our farmers, and improve their lives as they have improved ours. We must hail our farmers for the heroes they are.

Sincerely,

H.E. Dr. Sasa
Union Minister of Ministry of International Cooperation
Spoke Person of Nation Unity Government
Former Special Envoy to United Nations