13 July 09, Chaung U – Paddy cultivation is very common in Yar Gyi Taw Village and the neighboring villages of Chuang U Township. However, although paddy production is high, very few rice mills can be found.

Instead, the poor go to other villages to grind their paddy. This requires them to spend more time and money for milling only a small amount of paddy.

“Due to the difficulties we once faced, we often dreamt about setting up a small-scale rice huller for poor families like us,” said Ko Min Oo, breadwinner of a poor family in the village.

It was due to this strong desire to establish a rice huller, that Ko Min Oo and other poor families in the village sought the assistance of UNDP’s Integrated Community Development Project (ICDP) in November 2007.

Before submitting a request to ICDP, a mass meeting was held. Here the Rice Huller User Group was formed consisting of 13 supervisory committee members and 74 poor families as beneficiaries.

With the provision of one rice huller machine and K630,300 (about US$600) in cash grants from the project and with the contributions of its members, the group was able to install the machine at an unused warehouse owned by a village farmer group.

“The rice huller is running well, with poor families happy and proud of their efforts,” he added.

The machine is not only useful for milling rice, but many other income generating activities. Poor families can now easily grind small amounts of paddy and purchase by-products cheaply to feed their animals. Paddy husks can also be sold as fuel to families who produce jaggery.     

Within 15 months, the net profit was more than K240,000 (about US$220), with roughly 50 per cent of this profits reinvested to purchase paddy and sell rice for income generating purposes.

The rice huller supervisory committee is now planning to provide electricity to the whole village by using the engine used to operate the hulling machine. 

“We are very proud of the establishment of this huller. It is the first huller operated by the community and running successfully at Chaung U Township. We will try our best to look after the machine and make it as sustainable as possible,” Ko Min Oo said.   

UNDP supports another community-led irrigation project in Yar Gyi Taw’s neighboring village, to enable villagers to grow crops all-year-round.

Since 2003, it has also implemented various projects in Chaung U Township for community development, including food security, water and sanitation, education and health, environment, Self Reliance Group components and capacity building.