Coup, Covid, climate: the triple threat chasing citizens from Myanmar’s rice bowl

Kyar Kan Village, Magway Township. Rising temperatures, the pandemic and state-sponsored violence has fuelled what villagers describe as an exodus from Myanmar’s agricultural heartland. Photograph: Democratic Voice of Burma.

Before the morning sun brings the oppressive heat of the day, village cars, once laden with the dry zone’s staple beans, sesame and peanuts, set off for the regional capital of Magway.

But today, when the trucks draw in, they are crammed with young men and women clutching bundles of paperwork. They are seeking to flee what once was Myanmar’s agricultural capital in response to a growing food, job, and security crisis.