Letters: Lessons from Myanmar

With reference to Shankar Acharya's article, "A tiger cub in the neighbourhood" (May 12), on the importance of agriculture in Myanmar's economic growth, India can learn important lessons from that country. I would like to draw attention to two lessons India can learn to solve the problem of protein-deficit diet of its population that Acharya has not discussed.

The fact that India has a huge deficit in pulse production is well known. What is little known is that at least 40 per cent of that deficit is met by import of pulses from Myanmar. Bihari-Burmese farmers, who settled in Myanmar more than 100 years ago, were involved in the production of pulses, alongside native farmers. If Myanmar's agriculture sector grows at six per cent every year - a feasible growth rate in the near future - the country can export more pulses to India.

Second, Myanmar is a Buddhist nation and there is no taboo on eating beef or pork; there is no ban on cow slaughter. Because of this policy, Myanmar has been able to meet some of its demand for protein through the consumption of meat. India's growing Buddhist population will benefit if India, too, has a similar policy on meat consumption.

I was in Myanmar in the spring of 2014 and 2016. I spent time with the pulse farmers-cum-traders and visited rural areas of the country. Several ethnic groups in north-east India, for whom Myanmar is a close neighbour, have a diet similar to that of the Buddhist population of Myanmar, and are blessed with a similar potential for water necessary for the rapid growth of agriculture.

Chandrashekhar G Ranade, Washington DC

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