Farmers in Ayeyarwady Region are being threatened with jail and land seizures if they fail to repay loans granted by the ousted civilian government by November, sources in the region say.
Teams comprising township and village administrators, officials from the Myanma Agricultural Development Bank, soldiers and police have been visiting villages in Kyonepyaw and Bogale townships to instruct farmers to repay loans.
A farmer in Bogale said farmers in the township cannot afford to repay loans and are worried their farmland will be confiscated.
“Some farmers have not been able to repay loans for years. With the interest, the amount of the loan must have doubled,” he told The Irrawaddy. “There has been intense pressure on us. They said we will be sued and imprisoned if we fail to fully pay back the loans by November. Around 75 percent of farmers in this area can’t repay the loans,” he explained.
The agricultural loans were provided by the Myanma Agricultural Development Bank when the National League for Democracy was in power. Farmers were loaned 150,000 kyats per acre.
Some farmers are selling pieces of their land to repay the loans and others are borrowing from informal lenders at high interest rates, the farmer said.
A rice merchant in Kyonepyaw Township said that junta personnel “have been asking farmers to repay their loans since last month in our township. People will try to pay back the loan as the regime has threatened them with imprisonment.”
Rice prices are high this year, but farmers are not benefitting because of inflation, the high costs of pesticide and fertilizer, and high labor costs.
At a recent meeting in Naypyitaw, junta boss Min Aung Hlaing said farmers should get better access to quality seeds, natural and chemical fertilizers, and irrigation.
