Burmese authorities have confiscate farmland in Shan State in order to make way for the planting of physic nut trees, leaving much of the Shan population without a source of income.

Below is an article written by Khun Sam and published by The Irrawaddy:

A government-backed militia in northern Shan State confiscated nearly 1,000 acres of farmland earlier this year from villagers in Muse Township and has begun clearing the land in preparation for the planting of physic nut trees, according to residents in the Burma-China border town.

Villagers who complained about the seizure of land were told that the militia had acted under orders from Maj-Gen Aung Than Htut, head of the Burmese army’s Northeast Command.

Some villagers’ land was taken without any form of compensation. Others were paid a small compensation, estimated by local sources to be as little as 10,000 to 50,000 kyat (US $8 to $40) for small farms, or 100,000 to 500,000 kyat ($80 to $400) for tea and orange plantations.

Residents told The Irrawaddy o­n Monday that the Muse-based militia, led by a man named Sein Win, has been seizing farms and tea and orange plantations since the beginning of 2007.

“Without land, villagers who mainly rely o­n agriculture will find it more difficult to survive and will be forced into day labor to feed their families,” o­ne local resident said.

According to another local resident, many of the area’s farms have been in operation for generations, and current owners often have no legal documents that verify their ownership of the land.

The recent seizure of land is not the first time that villagers in the region have lost out to Burma’s aggressive campaign o­n physic nut production. Residents in Muse say that the militia has been seizing tracts of land since the beginning of 2007.

Lt-Gen Kyaw Win, from Burma’s Ministry of Defense, and Maj-Gen Aung Than Htut attended a physic nut growing ceremony and inspected a physic nut plantation near the Lashio-Muse Road in Shan State in mid-May, according to a press report in Burma’s state-run The New Light of Myanmar.

The report added that physic nut crops have been planted o­n 2,785 acres of land in Lashio in 2006-07, with another 1,200 acres expected to be planted in the next year.

Burma’s military government in the last year has adopted a national plan to cultivate some 7 million acres of physic nut crops throughout the country in a bid to cut the country’s dependence o­n oil imports.