Myanmar: Rescuing Myanmar’s Farmers from the Debt Trap

Apr 12, 2017 | Economist
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Many farmers borrow to cover planting costs, buy equipment or purchase land, and repay after the harvest. Under the junta that isolated Myanmar for decades, farmers had to borrow from the MADB, which was permitted only to make small loans for rice seed, rarely for periods of longer than a year. This hampered farmers in two ways. First, the small loan size sent them to informal moneylenders. Second, it prevented them from diversifying into higher-yield crops.