initiatives

Cultivation site :
Myanmar, JICA SDGs business survey

The purpose of this project is ensuring proper risk countermeasures by developing a stable supply of the senna which is a raw material for the sennosides used as APIs in laxatives. We currently procure these raw materials from the open market, but given cost increases associated with competition with other crops, irregular weather patterns, pesticide damage, and other risks in production regions, ensuring a stable supply is a challenge. Therefore, we are pursuing in-house cultivation in order to control our supply and stabilize volume, quality, and price.

Areas without irrigation in Myanmar’s central Dry Zone have lacked alternate crops that can be monetized during the dry season, so farmers struggle to secure a stable income. Rice, grown in the rainy season, has low profit margins, and crops like sesame and beans are strongly subject to the international market, so income from these is unstable. In addition, it lacks sufficient technical support, which has led the region to stagnate in terms of productivity and crop quality, with poor returns on work or money invested. Many small farmers are unable to earn a reasonable living. As a result, the region has a high poverty rate, with the Myanmar government’s plan for “Equilibrium of growth between urban and rural areas” not being successfully implemented. We sought to make senna production more widespread and raise awareness of cultivation and processing techniques, creating new opportunities for agricultural income and helping close the income gap.

This project is currently in the experimental cultivation stage, but rapidly commercializing this segment will allow for creating new employment opportunities for local farmers and contribute to SDG goal number 10, “reduced inequalities” -- specifically, target 10.1, “progressively achieve and sustain income growth of the bottom 40% of the population.”