Sugarcane Farmers In Kachin State Lose Entire Harvest
By Network Media Group
Tuesday, April 12, 2022
Border closures due to an Omicron outbreak have prevented sugarcane farmers in Kachin State from exporting their crop to China for sale since December. Farmers from Loije told NMG that they lost their entire crop this year.
“COVID-19 is still spreading and we cannot travel, work and export our sugarcane,” said a local who requested anonymity, explaining that most of the residents of Mai Ja Yang and Mang Weing areas are affected.
It was the first time in twenty years that they weren’t allowed to sell their sugarcane in China. At the beginning of the pandemic until last year, officials from China and Burma were able to reach an agreement that allowed farmers to send their crops across the border even though the disease had broken out in both countries.
“Normally we start harvesting sugarcane in December. We heard that the Chinese authorities would open the border checkpoints after the Chinese New Year, but several months have already passed,” another farmer told NMG on condition of anonymity.
“No one could export their sugarcane to China this year and our crops are drying up.”
According to the farmers, they’ve invested $1,345 for each acre of sugarcane. Some want the Kachin Independence Organisation to negotiate an agreement that will allow them to sell the remaining crop.
The border was opened on 22 January, but Chinese authorities closed it when transmissions started to spread in both countries.
