Can Nobel Prize Laureate Joseph Stiglitz leverage his knowledge in economics to move the State Peace and Development Council (aka, Myanmar’s military dictators) to policies that would stop the systematic destrcution of their country’s rural rice farmers? He’s travelling to Myanmar in two weeks to at least explore the question.

From IPS:

“He will share his ideas on what kind of economic decision making is critical for growth in the rural economy and poverty reduction,” adds the executive secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. “He will be there for a couple of days.”

“We hope that this mission will be able to open up a new space in economic decision-making and policy formulations,” Heyzer tells IPS. “The focus is on how do we reach the poorest people in Myanmar.”

Stiglitz, who has engaged with poorer countries to offer development models through the Initiative for Policy Dialogue, a think tank he founded, will meet Burma”s Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Maj Gen Htay Oo and National Development Minister Soe Tha during this visit.

Both ministers are reportedly close to Burma”s strongman, Senior Gen Than Shwe, who presides over a regime notorious for its oppression and secrecy.

Stiglitz is due to deliver a lecture on ‘Economic Policies and Decision Making for Poverty Reduction: Reaching the Bottom Half” in the afternoon of Dec. 15. The two ministers and Heyzer have also been billed as speakers during this ‘development forum” under the theme ‘Policies for Poverty Reduction- Effecting Change in Myanmar”s Rural Economy”.

Burma is the rice basket of South Asia, but no thanks to the generals.

Currently, some 7.8 million hectares are under paddy cultivation, producing an estimated 30.5 million tonnes of rice during the 2008-2009 harvest period, states the Food and Agriculture Organisation.

Such rice production has come at a heavy price for Burmese rice farmers. Most of them, who are small farmers, have had difficulty accessing rural credit, according to Sean Turnell, an Australian academic who publishes the ‘Burma Economic Watch”, in an interview with IPS.

“The policies of the Burmese government have been anything but helpful,” he says. “They have, in essence, stood by while Burma”s rural credit scheme has collapsed.”

Burmese economists wonder how open the junta will be to Stiglitz”s policy prescriptions given previous foreign attempts to suggest improvements to the country”s beleaguered economy, which were initially received with much fanfare but then ignored by the regime.

Why should they listen now?