Myanmar farmers need help replanting rice after floods: UN

YANGON: Farmers in flood-hit Myanmar face a scramble to replant damaged paddy fields in the next two weeks to avoid food shortages, and aid efforts in some of the country’s hardest hit areas remain a challenge, the United Nations said on Saturday.
More than 1.3 million people have been critically affected and at least 106 people have died since heavy monsoon rains coupled with a cyclone last month caused floods across the country, according to the government.
Water has receded in many areas, allowing farmers to assess the damage to their crops and also to seed stocks as the end of planting season nears.
“If farmers aren’t able to get rice seeds and plant in the next two weeks the window for the next season is pretty much over,” said Pierre Peron, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs(OCHA) in Myanmar.
“If they are not able to replant they will miss out completely on this season and the impact on food security will be much larger than if we can provide them with support to replant.”
Myanmar is a rice exporter, but has halted exports to stabilize prices.
The UN and NGOs have supplied emergency food assistance to 386,000 people impacted by the floods, OCHA said in its latest situation report on the flooding.
Over 1.4 million acres of paddy was flooded, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation.