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Daw May Myo Khine, 49 years old, who once lived in Sittwe, capital of Rakhine, and whose grandfather and father owned many rice farms explained that under the Burmese Socialist Programme Party, some farmers grew two different kinds of rice. They grew low quality rice, which they would sell to the government at the prescribed price and good quality variety, which they would eat themselves. The government gave farmers loans called “Amadaw Kyay” for growing rice. In return, the farmers had to sell the harvested rice to the government. In fact, the rice sold to the government could be viewed as a collateral farmers had to give to the government for the advanced loans. However, the government prescribed prices were usually half of the prices in the market. For example, if a farmer took 10,000 kyats Amadaw Kyay and the announced rice price was 500 kyats per tinn (Burmese unit of volume measurement that equals to 40.9148 L), the farmer had to give government 20 rice tinns back. These 20 rice tinns would fetch 20,000 kyats if they were sold at the market rate.
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Daw May Myo Khine, Personal Interview, 18 Aug 2020.
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- Text