Farmers across Sagaing Region’s agrarian heartland of Shwebo District are facing soaring agricultural production costs, attributing sharp fertilizer price hikes over the past 12 months to cumulative taxation levied across at least a dozen transit checkpoints operated by various local armed actors.
Shwebo, located 61 miles (98 km) northeast of the Sagaing Region capital Monywa, has been contested and partially administered by resistance groups, including the People’s Defence Force (PDF), since 2023.
A farmer in Wetlet Township, located 50 miles (80 km) east of Monywa, told DVB that the price of a single bag of chemical fertilizer has climbed by 30,000 MMK ($6.38 USD) over the past year.
The farmer reported that local transport carriers pass through as many as 12 separate toll points along rural supply corridors, with each checkpoint demanding road and commodity fees that are ultimately passed down to agricultural producers.
The PDF in Wetlet, operating under National Unity Government (NUG) command, rejected claims of systemic toll extortion.
A spokesperson told DVB that only two official NUG-authorized checkpoints operate in the area, collecting standardized tariffs of 500 to 1,000 MMK ($0.10–$0.21 USD) per bag of fertilizer.
The PDF emphasized that the NUG consolidated and reduced official revenue gates down to two over the past three years following residents’ complaints, alleging that reports of widespread checkpoint exploitation are amplified by pro-regime media to sow division between the local population and resistance forces.
The compounding overhead is putting severe economic strain on rice cultivators.
The Wetlet farmer stated that the total cost of cultivating a single acre of monsoon paddy has surged to 1.7 million MMK ($361 USD) this season—a 70 per cent increase compared to one million MMK spent per acre the previous year.
The economic crisis in Sagaing’s central dry zone is further aggravated by natural disasters.
