Back to news

Upgrading Ginger Value Chain

2 mins Read

70% Complete

ICIMOD’s Rural Livelihoods and Climate Change Adaptation in the Himalayas (Himalica) pilot project in Myanmar has facilitated linkage between private sector actors and communities. This is expected to overcome key constraints in ginger value chain and build trust among actors working at different nodes of the value chain.

ICIMOD and the Myanmar Institute for Integrated Development (MIID) are jointly implementing pilot projects in six villages in Kalaw and Nyaung Shwe in Shan State under the Himalica initiative. Promotion of ginger value chain is one of the key interventions of the pilot project. Although the villages have good potential for ginger production, value chain analysis has identified a couple of key constraints – lack of trust between traders and producers, and low bargaining power of the communities due to unsystematized production and poor market linkages.

In a bid to tackle these challenges, the project looked into a number of issues: (i) factors that contributed to lack of trust; (ii) interest of private entrepreneurs and their specific requirements in terms of quantity, quality, delivery mechanism, etc; and (iii) strengths and comparative advantages of communities. The project, together with local stakeholders, then designed a strategy that emphasized strengthening groups and using a collective approach to supply ginger in bulk from one place. On a cost-sharing basis, six collection points/ginger seed banks (one in each village) have been established and capacity of community groups enhanced so that they can make a collective deal with the traders.

Farmers now bring their produce to a common collection point

On the other hand, an anchor company was identified which expressed interest in receiving a continuous supply of good quality ginger from Shan State. As part of market making exercise, the project team facilitated dialogue between communities and the regional agent of Phyo & Kyaw Co. Ltd., Win Myat Htun, from Taungyi. The agent saw the business benefits as the company could source bulk quantity of ginger from one collection point and make a collective deal rather than negotiating with a number of individual suppliers.

The company’s agent has so far visited the pilot site 20 times on his own tractor to buy ginger. Farmers brought ginger to the collection point and sold it collectively. The project provided a weighing scale. A total of 149 metric tonnes (95,268 viss) of ginger were sold to the anchor company at an average price of MMK 335 per kilogram, bringing in total revenue worth MMK 49,500,000.

Farmers say the price at which they sell now is 10 percent higher than the price in Heho market, and the weighing scale has ensured that the payment is made based on standard unit. Further, farmers are able to save on transportation cost and time.

At the invitation of MIID, the managing director of Phyo & Kyaw Co. Ltd., Kyaw Min Oo, came to the pilot villages from Yangon on 25 March 2016 and met the communities of three villages (Pantin, Thayetpin, and Kyaung Nar). At the meeting, Kyaw Min Oo made a commitment to buy ginger in the coming years as well. The price will be 10 MMK higher than in Heho. The company has also expressed interest in buying turmeric from the villages and promised to provide business-embedded services like the supply of quality seeds and fertilizer to grow turmeric. The company will not charge any interest on the money provided for purchasing seeds and fertilizer, and the communities will pay back the exact amount at the time of harvest.

Stay current

Stay up to date on what’s happening around the HKH with our most recent publications and find out how you can help by subscribing to our mailing list.

Sign Up

Related content

Continue exploring this topic

28 Sep 2016 News
Discussing Strategy for SDIP Phase-II in Upper Indus Basin

The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) organised a consultation meeting 4 August 2016 in Islamabad to develop logical ...

31 Jul 2015 KSL
Transhumance herding: Not a pastoral romance anymore

With each passing year new realities are creeping into remote parts of Nepal leading to change in lifestyles, food habits, ...

Piloting of the Biodiversity Monitoring Protocol for REDD+ conducted in Parsa Wildlife Reserve, Nepal

Though a few biodiversity monitoring manuals and guidelines from the Government of Nepal (GoN), National Trust for Nature Conservation (

18 Jul 2019 News
Combining top–down and bottom–up: Designing a watershed management plan for Dhankuta Municipality

In the first consultation meeting with the vice mayor, there was a consensus that the conservation of water sources is ...

5 Dec 2015 HICAP
Adopting Climate Smart Village Approach for Restoring Landscapes

Members of the Association of International Research and Development Centers for Agriculture (AIRCA) presented and discussed different aspects of climate-smart ...

26 Feb 2016 Ecosystem services
Access and Benefit Sharing Between Nepal and India

As part of transboundary cooperation within Kailash Sacred Landscape Conservation and Development Initiatives (KSLCDI), the International Centre for Integrated Mountain ...

21 Jun 2016 News
ICIMOD Supports the Celebration of International Biodiversity Day in Afghanistan

ICIMOD, together with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and theUnited Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), celebrated the International Biodiversity Day in Kabul on ...

20 Jun 2018 HICAP
Government of Nepal allocates public investment to Shardu Khola as a priority national urban watershed

In 2018, the Department of Soil Conservation and Watershed Management (DSCWM) under Nepal’s Ministry of Forests and Environment listed Shardu ...