Myanmar's Poor Agricultural Policies
Could Hamper Longer-Term Recovery
By JAMES HOOKWAY
May 8, 2008 11:31 a.m.

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Myanmar's badly conceived agricultural policies
are compounding the country's already dire food situation.

In recent years, Myanmar's reclusive military rulers have plowed large
tracts of rice- and vegetable-growing land to plant jatropha -- an
inedible plant used for making biodiesel. Soldiers in the country's
400,000-strong army are routinely instructed to be self-sufficient and
do so by simply seizing food from farmers.

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