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The Japanese Government under its Grassroots Grant Assistance Scheme (GGA), granted US$ 80,695 for construction of “ Warehouse for Substitution Crops of Poppy ” in Aungmyaytharyar Village, Kyaukme Township in Northern Shan State.
Mr. Tetsuro AMANO, Minister-counsellor, Embassy of Japan to the Union of Myanmar, and U Kyaw Yin, Chairman of “ Palaung Peace Development Association ”, the recipient organization, signed the grant contract on 29 th May 2007 .
Aungmyaytharyar Village is located in a remote and mountainous area in the northern part of Shan State . After a ban on opium poppy cultivation in this area as a part of Myanmar government's efforts to eradicate narcotic drugs, the former opium farmers have suffered losing their income sources and labor opportunities.
Given the situation, “ Palaung Peace Development Association ” introduced substitute crops such as buckwheat, tea, and maize with the help of the Progress of Border Areas and National Races Department and the Japanese International Corporative Agency (JICA). At present, the association is able to systematically conduct a substitution crop program. But there's no appropriate storage for keeping substitute crops and crop seeds properly from humidity, temperature and pest in the village, so crops get easily rotten. That makes it impossible for farmers to sell their products in a long term and they can't get stable income, which has been doing big harm to the local economy. To solve the problem, the association tried to build a new storage in the village by itself, but the shortage of fund made it impossible. Therefore, the association applied to the Government of Japan for building a new storage under GGA scheme.
Taking into consideration the graveness of the current situation and sincere effort made by the association, the Japanese Government decided to fund the association to construct a warehouse for substitution crops of poppy .
It is expected that this assistance will improve the living conditions in this area.
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