Burma will not face food-shortage: Junta minister

Mizzima News

Mungpi, 11 June 2008 - New Delhi – A senior minister of the Burmese military junta has denied reports that the country will suffer from shortage of food after Cyclone Nargis lashed the country's fertile Irrawaddy delta region last month.

The Burmese junta's official mouthpiece, the New Light of Myanmar, on Wednesday quoted the Minister of National Planning and Economic Development U Soe Tha, as saying that reports of Burma running short of food are groundless.

The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) warned in May that there could be shortage of food in the country unless rice plantation begins immediately in the Irrawaddy delta, which was the worst affected by the deadly cyclone on May 2 and 3.

Soe Tha, the junta minister, however, said the reports were 'groundless information' saying that Burma's total rice production cannot be hampered because of the damages caused by the cyclone in the Irrawaddy delta.

"The rice output in the cyclone-affected areas in Ayeyawady [Irrawaddy] and Yangon [Rangoon] divisions made up only 2.3 per cent of the nation's total rice output," the New Light of Myanmar quoted Soe Tha as saying.

"The uncultivable acreage is barely 1 per cent of that of the whole nation," the report added.

But the FAO in a statement on May 14 said the five states and divisions hit by the cyclone produce "65 percent of the countries rice, and have about 50 percent of all irrigated areas."

According to FAO, 16 percent of the 3.2 million acres of agricultural land in the delta has been severely damaged.

While the FAO had said that rice cultivation should start at the beginning of June, most farmers in the Irrawaddy delta seem to find it difficult to work in the field, aid workers said.

A farmer in Rangoon division's Kun Chan Kone township told Mizzima earlier that tilling the fields and preparing for cultivation is almost impossible as they have lost most of their cattle.

While the government has promised to supply power-tillers and tractors to farmers, he said, "It is like a dream, we never see the tractors coming."

The farmer added that most of them have lost interest working in the fields as they are now struggling to survive.

"We cannot think of working in the fields as it has left us so many memories before the cyclone hit us," the farmer said.

Sean Turnell, Professor of Economics at Macquarie University in Australia, said Burma's rice shortage might even have regional impact, as Burma has not only been self-sufficient but was also exporting rice in the past.

"It is likely to have an impact in the region because Burma will now need to import rice," Turnell told Mizzima in an earlier interview.

Turnell further said Burma will not only suffer from food insecurity but will also suffer a long term impact on its gradually deteriorating economy.

"It is impossible for Burma to make a come back in terms of economy even within a few years," Turnell said.

Turnell said Burma's economy, which is mainly dependent on agriculture and forestry products, would take time to recover but the government's restrictions on assistance could delay it much longer.

A Burmese forester, a specialised academic from the Burmese Ministry of Forestry, told Mizzima that recovering from the damage, particularly in the forests, caused by the cyclone could take decades.

"The rehabilitation programmes will take decades no matter what agency or organization is undertaking the tasks because we have to follow the natural phenomena of natural succession plus artificial regeneration," the forester said.