UN Warns of ‘Catastrophic Hunger’ as Myanmar Runs Low On Fertilizer, Fuel

The World Food Programme (WFP) warns that soaring fertilizer and fuel prices, sparked by ongoing supply shortages, are set to drive rice prices even higher and worsen already “catastrophic” food insecurity in Myanmar.

According to the UN body, farmers are cutting back on fertilizer as costs skyrocket and supply tightens.

A 50-percent cut in fertilizer could reduce rice yields by 10-15 percent, further undermining already-fragile rice markets and food security, it added.

WFP warned the resulting crisis would impact people nationwide, with low-income households, smallholder farmers and residents of rural and conflict zones especially hard hit.

Myanmar remains heavily reliant on imports for its agriculture sector, importing over 1.1 million tons of fertilizer in fiscal year 2025-26, according to the country’s fertilizer, seeds and pesticides association. China typically supplies around half of Myanmar’s total fertilizer imports, according to World Bank data. However, Beijing imposed restrictions on fertiliser exports to protect its domestic market in late March, hampering Myanmar’s agricultural sector.

On Sunday, Myanmar’s regime-run media reported that 50kg bags of urea fertilizer were being distributed to rice farmers in Naypyitaw’s Lewe Township at a controlled price of 105,000 kyats (US$ 50). However, the reality for most farmers is very different. In other regions, rice growers report the market price for a bag of urea fertiliser has surged from 90,000 kyats to 150,000 kyat per bag, adding another layer of unsustainable costs as the planting season approaches.

Farmers normally use one or two bags of fertilizer per acre, but this practice has become economically unviable.

“Imagine! Ten bags of rice do not even cover the cost of one bag of fertiliser,” a farmer from Myanmar’s delta region lamented. “Why should a farmer buy enough fertiliser, knowing they will lose anyway?”

He added that the 300 bags (7 tonnes) he normally harvests from his three acres plummeted to just 130 bags (3 tonnes) this year due to surging fertilizer and water costs and scavenging rats.

While soaring fuel prices have pushed production costs to over 1 million kyat per acre, the market price remains below 1.5 million kyats for 100 bags of rice.

The regime’s botched fuel rationing has accelerated shortages and price hikes since early March, when global supplies tightened following the outbreak of war in the Middle East.

Agriculture has been hit hard, with many farmers questioning whether they can make any profit from the upcoming monsoon season harvest.

Agri-service providers report that farmers are reluctant to hire tractors to plough their land for monsoon planting.

“Around this time, we are normally hired for ploughing. But this year, no clients have contacted me yet”, a tractor owner from Pantanaw Township in the Ayeyarwady Delta told the Irrawaddy.

Mounting production costs would force farmers to switch from commercial growing to subsistence farming, hitting the market, he said.

Another farmer said the price of a bag of widely consumed Manaw Thukha rice has surged from 50,000 to 80,000 kyats, increasing hardship for daily-wage laborers.

Vast areas of Myanmar’s farmland have been abandoned since the 2021 coup, driven by fighting and mass displacement across the heartlands and ethnic borderlands.

The UN reports that Myanmar has reached “a catastrophic level of hunger”. Agricultural productivity has plummeted by 16 per cent since 2021, leaving over 12.4 million people or a quarter of the population facing acute hunger.