Myanmar 4R Nutrient Stewardship Program

Myanmar’s recent economic opening has provided new opportunities, including those for the fertilizer industry and their supply chain partners. In this project, we will conceptualize and implement a market development program for Myanmar, together with one of IPNI’s member companies. This project began in 2014 and will continue through 2018.

During the first two years of the study (2014 and 2015), the program encompassed the production of educational 4R Nutrient Stewardship materials and conceptualized, prepared and delivered a 4R seminar series in Myanmar. Initially, the direct impact was generated for the local business partners of IPNI member companies by developing materials that support both fertilizer market and sustainable agricultural development. Eventually, we expect our work to generate yield and income increases for farmers who deploy the 4R concepts. Furthermore, the program engagement strategy has a large-scale outreach into various commodities and will increasingly engage diverse key stakeholders in the agricultural sector.

For 2017, we undertook a fertilizer market assessment to identify the most significant 4R Research and Development opportunities in terms of regions, commodities, processes, and fertilizer industry demands. For this assessment, we developed a rapid field approach to generate deep market intelligence, executed three regional field missions in which the rapid approach was deployed. A final report “Supporting Responsible and Profitable Use of Fertilizers in Myanmar” was written to outline market development opportunities identified during the field missions. A presentation was prepared based on the report was delivered in Myanmar to the supporting IPNI member company and its national business partners. The project is now complete.

We expect this program to generate significant benefits for the farming and agricultural business community in a country that is considered as a potential agricultural powerhouse, but where currently little information is available to realize this vision. IPNI and partners will make a difference in this ambitious process.