Dry Zone
More actions
| Dry Zone | |
|---|---|
| ActiveRecorded as grown here since 2000 | |
| Location | |
| Coordinates | 21.30, 95.60 |
| Country | Myanmar |
| Provinces/States | Sagaing Region,Mandalay Region,Magway Region |
| Area | 49,000 km² |
| Climate | Semi-arid; annual rainfall mostly under 40 inches (1,020 mm) |
| Growing history | |
| Conservation | |
| Populations | none documented yet |
The Dry Zone is a landrace cannabis growing region on the central plains of Myanmar, in Sagaing, Mandalay and Magway regions. It covers the middle basin of the Ayeyarwady around its confluence with the Chindwin, where the annual rainfall is usually under 40 inches (1,020 mm).[1] Officials giving evidence to the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission of 1893–94 reported hemp grown in small plots, mostly in secret, in the districts of Mandalay, Kyaukse, Meiktila and Sagaing, after the British had prohibited it. The Commission named Thayetmyo, Meiktila, Kyaukse and Mandalay as perhaps the districts where it was most prevalent.[2] Since 2022–23 several villages in Ayadaw Township, in southern Sagaing, have turned from rice, beans, betel nut and cotton to cannabis.[3]
Geography
The zone is a semi-arid lowland between the Shan highlands to the east and the Rakhine Range and Chin Hills to the west, about 230 miles (370 km) from north to south and 115 miles (185 km) across. Its boundary is drawn at the 40-inch isohyet. Inside it lie 62 townships: 27 in Mandalay Region, 16 in lower Sagaing Region and 19 in Magway Region, about 19,000 square miles (49,000 km²) in all.[1]
Most of the rain falls between mid-May and September, with one peak in May and a second in September. Most of the driest townships lie in the inner core of the zone. Chaung-U, Myinmu, Monywa and Ayadaw make up one group with less than 25 inches (635 mm) a year; another includes Myingyan, Pakokku, Nyaung-U, Chauk and Yenangyaung. Rainfall rises towards the margins: Madaya and Mandalay receive 30 to 35 inches; the eastern parts of Kyaukse, Madaya and Singu receive more than 35.[1]
Cultivation history
Under the Burmese kings
Under the Burmese kings the use of ganja was forbidden together with opium, spirits and two kinds of rice beer, but the Commissioner of the Eastern Division, J. E. Bridges, told the Commission that "practically no notice was taken of the growing of the hemp plant". Township officers he consulted recalled growers in "Burmese times": the plant was sown in the town of Yamethin by those who used it, five men grew it at Yindaw and about 50 at Pindale. The officer for Lewe said a few people there grew ganja on a small scale, ten to twenty plants, while Karens grew large quantities to sell to timber traders, who used it to treat their elephants.[4] Two former officials of the last Burmese government disagreed about how much was grown. The Kinwun Mingyi, once Prime Minister, had never heard of hemp cultivated anywhere in Burma under Burmese rule. U Pe Si, Town Magistrate of Mandalay under the kings, recalled "very little" cultivation on the southern border of Upper Burma, about one plant to a hundred houses.[5][6]
E. Lewis, who had run the excise at Thayetmyo for a contractor when British Burma prohibited ganja, said the supply there came from Upper Burma, where ganja "was extensively grown across our old border"; he had seen small plots of up to half an acre.[7] From his evidence the Commission inferred that Upper Burma had grown the plant on a considerable scale before the prohibition, since it was the sole source of supply for the shops of Lower Burma. In the Commission's view this larger cultivation ended once that market closed.[2]
Under British rule
British Burma prohibited the sale and cultivation of ganja in 1873.[8] After the annexation of Upper Burma the excise law was extended there in 1888. The opium rules sanctioned that year forbade the sale of every other intoxicating drug.[9][10]
The district officers who answered the Commission described small and mostly hidden growing. Bridges wrote that the diaries of excise officers in Upper Burma frequently reported the cultivation of ganja. Growing a little for one's own use was general there, he said, though the users were few. A Burman at Meiktila who had grown plants all his life was fined five rupees.[4] The Deputy Commissioner of Meiktila, H. Adamson, wrote that the plant was cultivated secretly in gardens from time to time.[11] In Sagaing district, the police superintendent said, Burmans grew small amounts for sale rather than for their own use, not knowing that it was forbidden. The Deputy Commissioner reported a case of Burmans growing ganja for sale to natives of India, whose plants were destroyed at once. He wrote that Indians who grew a few plants were generally detected and fined.[12][13] In Kyaukse district a policeman was convicted of growing ganja. In Mandalay district the Deputy Commissioner put a stop to a small cultivation in the Madaya and Pyinulwin townships in 1891.[4][9]
The Commission concluded that a few plants were still grown in secret in Lower and Upper Burma alike, but that the practice was on the whole kept in check in the settled districts.[2] Officials said the drug was used to treat animals. Bridges heard it called "the sole remedy for most diseases of elephants"; Adamson wrote that it was considered invaluable for elephants; the Deputy Commissioner of Mandalay believed the plants found in his district in 1891 were grown chiefly for cattle.[4][11][9]
Since 2019
In April 2019 police raided a 20-acre plantation run by the III M Nutraceutical company in the Myotha Industrial Park in Mandalay Region and reported about 349,300 marijuana plants. The company said the plants were hemp, grown for research and development with the regional government's approval.[14][15]
After the coup of 2021, farmers in southern Sagaing turned from their old crops to cannabis. In Ayadaw Township and on its border with Myinmu villagers moved to it from 2022–23. In 2025 residents estimated that six neighbouring villages grew more than 30 acres between them; buyers came directly to the villages.[3]
Growing Areas
| Growing Area | Status | Region |
|---|---|---|
| Ayadaw | Active | Sagaing Region |
| Kyaukse | Historical | Mandalay Region |
| Madaya | No longer grown | Mandalay Region |
Accessions
No accessions documented yet.
Recent news
No news items are recorded for this growing region yet.
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Khin Thein Oo (2016). "Spatial Analysis of Rainfall Variation in Dry Zone of Myanmar". Yadanabon University Research Journal. 7 (1) – via Myanmar Education Research and Learning Portal.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. I: Report. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. ch. IV, "Extent of cultivation, and its tendency to increase or decrease", paras. 136–138, pp. 52–54 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Cannabis Takes Root in Sagaing as Myanmar's Post-Coup Drug Boom Expands". The Irrawaddy. 4 December 2025. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Mr. J. E. Bridges, Commissioner of the Eastern Division". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. VII: Evidence of Witnesses from Bombay, Sind, Berar, Ajmere, Coorg, Baluchistan, and Burma. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. Burma witness no. 3, pp. 377–380 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Kinwun Mingyi, C.S.I., Prime Minister to the late Government of Burma". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. VII: Evidence of Witnesses from Bombay, Sind, Berar, Ajmere, Coorg, Baluchistan, and Burma. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. Burma witness no. 52, pp. 407–408 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Myowun U Pe Si, C.I.E., late Town Magistrate of Mandalay". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. VII: Evidence of Witnesses from Bombay, Sind, Berar, Ajmere, Coorg, Baluchistan, and Burma. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. Burma witness no. 53, p. 408 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Mr. E. Lewis, Excise Officer, Rangoon". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. VII: Evidence of Witnesses from Bombay, Sind, Berar, Ajmere, Coorg, Baluchistan, and Burma. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. Burma witness no. 19, pp. 390–392 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. I: Report. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. ch. XVI, "Provincial systems examined", paras. 692–695, pp. 338–342 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Mr. K. G. Burne, Deputy Commissioner, Mandalay". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. VII: Evidence of Witnesses from Bombay, Sind, Berar, Ajmere, Coorg, Baluchistan, and Burma. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. Burma witness no. 7, pp. 381–382 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ "Letter No. 3361, dated 22nd June 1888, from E. J. Sinkinson, Officiating Secretary to the Government of India, Department of Finance and Commerce, to the Chief Commissioner of Burma". Collection of Papers Relating to the Excise Administration of India (Reprinted from the Supplement to the Gazette of India, 1 March 1890). Calcutta: Superintendent of Government Printing, India. 1890. para. 4(1), p. 262 – via Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Mr. H. Adamson, Deputy Commissioner, Meiktila". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. VII: Evidence of Witnesses from Bombay, Sind, Berar, Ajmere, Coorg, Baluchistan, and Burma. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. Burma witness no. 10, p. 384 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Mr. C. M. Prendergast, District Superintendent of Police, Sagaing". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. VII: Evidence of Witnesses from Bombay, Sind, Berar, Ajmere, Coorg, Baluchistan, and Burma. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. Burma witness no. 28, p. 394 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Major G. S. Eyre, Deputy Commissioner, Sagaing". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. VII: Evidence of Witnesses from Bombay, Sind, Berar, Ajmere, Coorg, Baluchistan, and Burma. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. Burma witness no. 12, pp. 385–386 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Zarni Mann (24 April 2019). "American, 2 Others Held over Marijuana Plantation in Mandalay Division". The Irrawaddy. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ "Death Penalty Possible in Myanmar Cannabis Farm Case". Voice of America. Associated Press. 21 May 2019. Retrieved 19 October 2026.