Life of a farmer in Bago

When Mr. Myo Lwin dropped out from school, he was only 18 years old. He thereafter worked as a farmer in his parents’ paddy fields. Since 1982, Mr. Myo Lwin has worked as a farmer for over 40 years. After he got married in 1997, he began his own agriculture business on his 11 acres of a farm. He mainly grows rice and beans. Mr. Myo Lwin had faced no significant obstacles in his livelihood as a farmer up until the year came and rice production on his fields was severally damaged by pests.

In early days, Mr. Myo Lwin had to wake up early about 4am to cultivate the land with cows and buffaloes when there was no machinery to do so. But now, he goes to the field around 7am because it takes less time to cultivate the land with agriculture machinery. Mr. Myo Lwin got to know of ASGB when some loan officers came to his village and introduced Agriculture Loan to farmers in Minhla, Bago Region. He decided to take up a loan and invested it in purchasing fertilizers and seeds, and renting cultivators.

Mr. Myo Lwin said that the loan allowed him to obtain the whole amount of money needed for the farm and to quickly utilize the investment. In the past, he had never taken a loan because it was difficult to borrow the large amount of money from private money lenders. He produces the average of 80 tins (1tin=20 kg) per acre and sells the rice in the Minhla town. It was his first time to take up a loan in his life. Mr. Myo Lwin said “What I like about Agriculture Loan is the repayment schedule requiring an interest payment once every three months. It is more convenient for me than a monthly repayment. I would like to continue work with ASGB.”