1. Making Myanmar’s land use
regulatory framework more
nutrition sensitive
U Kyaw Swe Lin – Director General DoP/MoALI
IFPRI-FAO Global Event on Accelerating the End of
Hunger and Malnutrition
Bangkok, November 28-30, 2018

2. Diversification of agriculture underpins dietary
diversity and nutrition
SMALLHOLDER DIVERSIFICATION AGRICULTURE
Rice, pulses, edible oils, vegetables, fruits, fish, livestock, ducks,
pigs, poultry, high value cash crops (cardamom, ginger, chillie
coffee, moringa), fodder, NTFP, non cultivated food stuffs,
tanaka,
FOOD AVAILABILITY at
HOUSEHOLD AND LOCAL
MARKET
STABLE AND RISK ADJUSTED
HOUSEHOLD INCOME
ACCESS TO DIVERSIFIED
FOOD BASKET – 900US$/HH
DIETARY DIVERSITY
ENABLING ENVIRONMENT
LAND ACCESS
TENURE SECURITY
INPUTS +
SERVICES
E
X
T
E
N
S
I
O
N
NUTRITION EDUCATION
?

3. Challenges in the Enabling Environment: Land
Tenure framework does not support diversification
• Formal land titling is required to secure tenure and to access
different services including seasonal credit, land consolidation and
mechanisation, access to projects;
• Land titling is land use specific and conditional, focusing on rice
and edible oil self sufficiency, and export of beans/pulses;
• Land use conversions of titled land are cumbersome impeding the
free choice of crops and production systems that may be much
more nutrition sensitive and dense than staple crops;
• Land services are rice/annual crop centred ; +90% of paddy fields
are titled but – 50% of “other lands ”, especially customary lands in
ethnic states such as Chin, Shan and Kachin where high levels of
stunting prevail;
• Secure access to land is not provided for many nutrition sensitive
agricultural production systems which are not regarded as
“farmland”: agro-forestry, livestock, aquaculture, home gardens;

4. National Land
Use Policy (NLUP)
Agriculture
Development
Strategy (ADS)
Multi Sector
National Plan of
Action Nutrition
• National Land Use
Policy endorsed
addressing FNS
tenure challenges
• National Land Use
Council created with
Working Committees
• Law/regulatory
revision roadmap
drafted
• 16-action point FSN
senstive land
component and
investment plan for
transformation with
tenure indicators
• GAFSP approved with
land admin support
• Prioritization and
targeting of FSN
senstive land tenure
interventions
• Draft EU nutrition
support programme
to fund these
interventions
How GoM aims to address these
bottlenecks?• Assessment, evidence and ToC: FIRST diagnostic; EU budget support design
• Institutional capacity building: Department of Planning on nutrition (MoALI );
National Land Use Council;
• Consultation & Engagement : Subnational ADS and MS-NPAN;
• Network strengthening and coordination: Intra sector (different MoALI
departments), inter sector (NNC and SUN; civil society); Sector coordination
groups
TOOLSPROCESSOUTCOMES

5. Case 1: Land and aquaculture under
MS-NPAN
• Fish accounts for 60% of animal protein in Myanmar; 30% of fish production comes
from aquaculture; aquaculture generates much higher earnings and creates more
employment opportunities than crop farming;
• MS-NPAN recognizes the potential contribution of smallholder aquaculture to increase
fish protein availability and farmer´s income, especially for the poorest wealth quintiles;
• Current land legislation constrains the conversion of rice land into rice-fish systems and
fishponds;
• MoALI - FIRST partnership engages in policy/law reform dialogue as follows:
– Facilitating grass roots consultation on the challenges as part of the ADS consultation
– Connecting the institutional dots: facilitating dialogue between Fisheries and Land Administration
Departments using different platforms
– Establishing workable partnership between different DP investments in the aquaculture sector (EU,
FAO, GIZ, SDC, WorldFish) to establish a common platform of action on land tenure
– Work on a common ToC as part of the nutrition strategy
– TA to assess legal framework and suggest short and medium term regulatory changes
– Including reform investment in agricultural (ADS) and nutrition (MS-NPAN) programmes
• 20MEuro EU-GIZ and 19M$ GEF-FAO investments in aquaculture have included solid
law reform activities for achieving the expected outcomes

6. Case 2: Land allocation to landless
households under ADS
• Landless rural households are significantly more food insecure, have less
dietary diversity, are poorer and spend excessive resources on food
purchases;
• One third of the estimated 40-60% of landless households need access to
land to support their livelihoods;
• Landless people face the following FNS challenges:
– Little or no food production for own-consumption;
– No steady income generation from agricultural commodities;
– Seasonal employment only with total annual income well below cost
minimum diversified diet
– No access to formal loans
• A MoALI-LIFT pilot project deals with reclaiming unused VFV land and
formally allocate this to landless households with secure land rights,
including women headed households;
• Results of such pilots feed into ADS and MS-NPAN to deliver land re-
allocation programmes at scale;
• Multi-donor trust fund (LIFT), development partners, including EU, design
investment for service delivery for land re-allocation in support of ADS and
MS-NPAN

7. Way forward – institutional capacity
building
• Institutions to implement the three national
policies/strategies need to be strengthened at national
and sub-national level. Priorities include
– NLUP: support to NLUC, its Working Committees and
subnational Region/State bodies
– ADS: strengthening the ADS-Implementation Support Unit
as an overall coordination and implementation body;
strengthening Department of Planning and its Agricultural
Policy Unit; empowering subnational implementation
capacity ; Agriculture and Rural Development Sector
Coordination Group
– MS-NPAN: strengthening intra- and inter-ministerial
coordination (MoALI Focal points, SUN network
coordination; Nutrition Sector Coordination Group