An estimated 779,000 women, girls, boys, and men living in conflict-affected areas in Myanmar are vulnerable to severe food insecurity. The main humanitarian needs include economic and physical access, as well as availability of nutritious and diversified food at household and community levels.

Long-standing conflict in Kachin and Shan, inter-communal tensions in Rakhine, and recurrent climate-related shocks continue to undermine the stability and availability of food supplies as well as physical and economic access to food. With an estimated 779,000 people unable to meet their minimum dietary requirements, food security remains a major issue among the displaced (including the newly displaced in 2017), returned/relocated, and other crisis-affected people in Kachin, Kayin, Shan and Rakhine states. People living in crisis-affected areas of Myanmar are among the most vulnerable in the country. Conflicts continue to undermine the capacity of the most vulnerable populations to produce and access sufficient, diversified and nutritious food, leading to negative coping mechanisms and limited ability to meet basic human needs, hindering their resilience.

Continued movement restrictions obstruct physical and economic access to food, and add constraints on the already scarce livelihood opportunities available to the displaced and relocated populations. Vulnerable populations are in need of a stable food supply to ensure availability of food in the household and in markets at all times. The vast majority of the population in Myanmar rely on subsistence farming and casual labour as their main source of livelihood, and have limited capacity to produce sufficient food throughout the year. Food gaps during the monsoon season are common, with functionally landless households and those
dependent on non-sustainable un-skilled daily or seasonal jobs facing the longest gaps in food stocks. Recurrent debt has caused a cycle of indebtedness among the poorest.

Frequent human and natural crises (e.g. conflict, displacement, inter-communal tensions, floods, cyclones) affect food availability, adding to the existing structural limitations of the agricultural sector: inadequate productive infrastructure, poor quality of inputs, high costs of production, low acceleration
in modernization of agro-techniques, limited knowledge of agricultural practices and market information, and significant post-harvest losses. Recurrent climate shocks put communities at high risk of displacement and loss of productive assets and livelihoods. Natural disasters impact particularly the agriculture sector,
affecting standing crops, livestock, fishery and productive infrastructures.