Foreign investment called crucial in country where some mills are still steam-powered

Dressed in Chelsea soccer shorts and a wide-brimmed hat, Than Tun toils away in his paddy field on the outskirts of Yangon. Grueling work that once helped Myanmar become the world's largest rice exporter is today a lonely job for farmers.

"No one comes here and asks about the difficulties we face," the 40-year-old said during his break, citing voracious insects, crumbling irrigation channels and greedy middlemen as some of the challenges preventing him from making a profit.