What You Need to Know About Myanmar’s Rainy Season

Myanmar is located in the Southeastern part of Asia, and known for its long rainy season from April to November. This characteristic of the country is one of the ordeals of the Burmese people because it greatly affects their livelihood and industry. Two of the most affected industries of heavy rain fall are construction and agriculture.   

In the year 2011, Myanmar went through a series of unusual weather conditions. With the strong impact of the moderate to strong La Nina in the mid part of the year 2010, it gave rise to the colder and wetter conditions last year through the month of October. Such constant unseasonal rains and cold weather proved highly detrimental for the country’s agriculture sector, with beans and paddy crops damaged, affecting overall crop production.

In fact, 23 records for heavy rainfall were broken across Myanmar, especially in the State of Rakhine wherein the heaviest rainfall of the country reached 29.1 inches in just 12 hours and resulted to flooding in farmlands and towns.  It also caused landslides in some hilly regions, damaging rural infrastructures which include bridges and roads. On the other hand, several rivers in Myanmar also burst their banks, thereby causing flooding in regions such as Karen State, Ayeyarwady, Magwe and Bago.

In accordance with the Department of Agricultural Planning’s figures, about 97,000 acres of plants and crops were destroyed by floods last year. United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) also released report about a flash flood event on the month of November last year that 161 people have been recorded missing or dead. The government figures also recorded that 2335 out of 9523 infrastructures, mostly houses have been destroyed.

This just shows how strong the impact of heavy rain fall in Myanmar to the Burmese people is. In order to address the calamity brought by rainfall, the Myanmar government is doing the best they can. Since the agricultural industry is one of the gravely affected sectors, the government is consistently doing measures in order to improve the agricultural techniques and strategies of the country.

Several activities that are under ESFSP, financed by the Development Cooperation of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs having a total contribution of 5.3 million US dollars was started in January 2010. The program covers activities related to fisheries and crops sector, namely hatcheries rehabilitation, trainings, fisheries and mangroves management activities, rehabilitation of water tanks, inputs distribution and farmer field schools activities.

To boost the agricultural industry, the FFS trainings on enhanced strategies coupled with methodologies on postharvest loss reduction, quality declared seeds and registered seeds paved the way to the increase of farmers’ yields.

Apart from these, Myanmar also boosted their disaster preparedness plans in order to avoid casualties and to inform people on the right things to do when there is heavy rainfall.

To lessen the impact of rainfall to the livelihood of people and to different industries, the government of Myanmar is continuously doing their best to come up with effective disaster prevention plans, more especially in agriculture.