Opportunities, Risks and Growing Inequality The Charoen Pokphand Group and Maize Smallholder Production in Shan State Myanmar

Myanmar’s farmers face an insufficiency of protective institutions, low interest loans, and good market information. Compounded by low rural household income, this has limited the growth of the rural economy and economic opportunities for smallholders. This report explores one method that the nation is taking to combat this; contract farming of maize by rural upland communities in Shan State in collaboration with Thailand’s Charoen Pokphand Group. While assenting that contract farming has the potential to benefit smallholders, the report explores challenges faced by respondent communities including lack of formal contracts, decreased food security, and soil nutrient collapse, and communities’ resulting coping mechanisms.