Farmers in the Irrawaddy delta said lives have been turned upside down by the killer Cyclone Nargis and they are at a loss to figure out where to pick up the thread and go back to cultivation.
Though it is time for cultivation in paddy fields and cyclone victims in Irrawaddy Division have no idea how and when to go back to farming busy as they are searching for shelter and food for daily sustenance.
Cyclone victims in Haing Gyi Island, Daedaye and Laputta Townships said they are relying on private donors for their daily food and shelter.
The paddy fields are flooded, the cattle killed in the cyclone and seeds gone to waste. Thoughts of working in the fields are far from the minds of most.
"Farmers lost everything. They have no shelter and food. How can they go back to their paddy fields? To make things worse they lost their temporary shelter after heartless local authorities drove them out of these makeshift shelters. They now live on the roadside in the open," a local resident in Bogale said.
An NGO staff, who visited Haing Gyi Island, said that though cyclone victims want to return to the paddy fields, they are mentally restless, traumatized as they are after losing their homes and cattle. The daily hardship in acquiring food and ekeing out a living in the midst of the devastation is all too frightening.
Meanwhile, the authorities on Sunday set the deadline to plough the paddy fields in Daedaye in Irrawaddy Division, Kun Chan Kone and Kawhmu in Rangoon Division. Given their distraught state of mind the farmers have been unable to comply.
"I haven't yet seen farmers sowing seeds. All the cattle and seed were destroyed in the cyclone as were the farming equipment, which are now being repaired," a relief worker said.
The tidal surge during the cyclone flooded 1.37 million acres of arable land with sea water in Irrawaddy, Rangoon Division, and Mon State. Over 280,000 heads of cattle were lost, official statistics reveal.
The junta authorities in Laputta, Deadeye and Bogale Townships ordered victims staying in temporary shelters in these towns to go back home. The authorities donated hand tractors to the farmers, the state-run media said.
Though some farmers in Laputta, Mawlamyinegyun and Deadaye Townships have commenced farming under the government plan, cyclone victims from Haing Gyi, Kun Chan Kone and Kawhmu haven't yet received adequate aid. Neither has there been field inspection of their farm land by the authorities till today.
"They media said over 800 hand tractors were given to farmers. We saw hand tractors being transported by trucks to Irrawaddy Division on television. But we haven't yet seen any tractor in this village," a relief worker who visited Kung Chan Kone said.
The farmers from Haing Gyi, Kun Chan Kone and Deadeye are ready to start farming if they are provided adequate seeds, ploughshare and other farming implements, even as they wait for treatment to overcome their trauma and mental setback.
"Our desire is to go back to our fields and start work if we have the required farm inputs after the flood water recedes. This is the only way we will have food to eat though we will not make commercial benefits from our fields as of now. Moreover the work will rejuvenate our mind and help overcome metal stress," a farmer in Kawhmu said.
The paddy fields in Burma, once famous as the rice bowl of Asia, were destroyed by Cyclone Nargis. This can lead to acute shortage of rice this year, many warn.
