Brings Hope of Higher Yields in Myanmar
For the first time in the history of farming in Myanmar, a new tool that vastly improves agricultural
practices will be readily available to the USAID-funded Fertilizer Sector Improvement (FSI) project
areas. With the help of IFDC and USAID, two local entrepreneurs have obtained UDP briquetting
machines from Bangladesh. These machines will be used to produce and sell the advanced
fertilizer technology to rice farmers to produce higher yields. Rice makes up a majority of the
nation’s agriculture industry and is its main commodity.
Designed by scientists at IFDC, the briquetting machine takes prilled nitrogen fertilizer and
compacts it into a 1- to 3-gram briquette of urea. This briquette is then placed by either hand or
handheld applicator between every four rice plants 7-10 cm into the ground. The briquettes stay
in the ground for the remainder of the season and supply all the necessary nutrients for the plant
to grow. UDP was designed as an