Myanmar Plant Health System Strategy 2016-2020.

This Myanmar Plant Health System Strategy (MPHSS )2016-2020 is a national wide sectoral policy document. The MPHSS has 6 strategic objectives: 1: Increase reach and impact of the existing extension system; 2: Strengthen linkages amongst key stakeholders of the plant health system; 3: Establish a systematic and reliable real time plant health data collection system for strategic use; 4: Establish and populate knowledge platforms to share relevant local and global information on plant health; 5: Develop and implement a systematic monitoring and evaluation system; 6: Strengthen the national commitment through governance and policy advocacy.
The MPHSS seeks to strengthen the capacity of agricultural institutions and organisations to establish sustainable plant health systems within the country and therefore contribute to increasing food security and livelihoods of the farming community in Myanmar. The MPHSS is also intended to be a major contributor to achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, in particular Goal Number 2 (End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture).
The MPHSS seeks to enable more inclusive and efficient agricultural and food systems. The aim of a plant heath strategy is to integrate resources and expertise of extension, research, regulatory and input supply actors to deliver effective responses to plant health problems for all farmers. Regular, reliable and pragmatic plant health services, embedded in an effective plant heath strategy, are therefore much needed to support the many small farmers in Myanmar’s rural communities. Effective plant health management is fundamental to ensure food security and safety and to meet the demands of local and global markets against a backdrop of healthy and productive agro-landscapes. Each of the 6 objectives of the MPHSS is underpinned with a strategic theme: Theme 1: Delivery of actionable knowledge to farmers; Theme 2: Linkages between key stakeholders; Theme 3: Data collection and management; Theme 4: Knowledge access, generation and dissemination; Theme 5: Continuous improvement through monitoring and evaluation; Theme 6: Sustainability and inclusiveness.
The MPHSS also contributes to increase the resilience of livelihoods to disasters by Objective 3: Establish a systematic and reliable real time plant health data collection system for strategic use. Considering that climate change is a main threat to Myanmar, systematic collection of farm level data has a huge potential to detect climate change induced pest spread and therefore increase resilience and decrease vulnerability to climate change of farming households.