New Delhi (Mizzima) - A year after Cyclone Nargis devastated Burma’s rice bowl, the Irrawaddy delta, farmers say they are plagued with another disaster – pests.
A farmer in Paunte village in Bogale Township said fighting off pests in their paddy fields is a major task in order to prevent a fall in production.
Pests of various kinds have crept into their paddy field and destroyed farm lands. This has left farmers with little yield impacting their daily lives as well as heralding bad times.
“The pests have destroyed many paddy plants in the field. The problems that we face now are larger than that before the Nargis hit us,” he said.
Cyclone Nargis, which lashed Burma’s Irrawaddy and Rangoon division on May 2 last year, left at least 140,000 dead or missing and devastated over 2.4 million peoples lives.
Despite several aid groups including United Nations agencies helping cyclone survivors with relief aid and reconstruction, farmers said the current problem of pests is a new one facing them.
“I am not even sure whether I can continue farming in the ensuing monsoon season,” said a farmer from Demoeyin Village, who recently visited Bogale town to Mizzima on Tuesday.
He said, during this dry-season he was only able to harvest about 40 to 50 baskets per acre of land, while in normal years the yield is about 80-100 baskets per acre of land.
According to Chris Kaye, Country director of World Food Program (WFP) in Rangoon, cyclone victims in the delta region will face hardships in restoring their normal livelihood and food security as a result of the low level of agricultural productivity last year.
“High levels of debt, limited agricultural productivity and low levels of employment or other income generating activities mean that the coming lean [monsoon] period will be especially difficult for families to feed themselves,” Kaye told Mizzima.
The farmer from Demoeyin Village said he is faced with a financial crunch to be able to plan cultivation as his paddy yield during last year’s monsoon was bad.
“We received around Kyat 10,000 [approximately USD 10] per household from relief agencies last year after Cyclone Nargis as support for paddy cultivation,” the farmer added.
But he said the amount was insufficient to cover the expenditure for cultivation. He said, he needs to spend at least Kyat 50,000 to pay for seeds, hiring workers to prepare the farmland, and pay for fuel for tractors, other mechanical devices and fertilizers.
Last year, following Cyclone Nargis, he was able to cultivate his farmland by taking loans from local money lenders, who charged up to 15 percent interest. After repaying the money from the little income that he generated he is left with almost nothing. He cannot imagine how he will cultivate his land this monsoon.
The farmer, however, is not alone in taking loans from local money lenders. A Rangoon-based aid worker, who frequently visited the cyclone hit areas of Bogale and Laputta said most farmers relied on loans from money lenders.
“But with the high interest rates, this time, they dare not take any loans,” the aid worker said.
Astrid Sehl, Communication Officer of the United Nations Office in Rangoon said assistance and support to agriculture and livelihood is among the most important activities to help the victims of the cyclone.
“It is important to provide assistance and support so people can fully support themselves. In this, agriculture and livelihood support, is the key,” Sehl told Mizzima.
But a local journalist in Rangoon, who has just returned from a two-week trip to the delta, said, while a few villages close to the towns such as Bogale and Laputta are receiving aid, several other villages closer to the sea still lack sufficient aid.
Though many farmers are able to go back to the field, they lack sufficient support that will enable them to generate a higher yield,” the
While the needs of cyclone victims may be diverse and plenty, farmers do need support to get rid of the pests that plague their fields. This would be basic support to them.
The pests, which are believed to have increased severely due to the entry of salt water into the fields, according to him, eat up the stem, and the paddy, leaving the broken plants on the fields.
“Investing for cultivation is already so much trouble, so, many are unable to buy pesticides,” the journalist said.
The aid worker in Rangoon said, while many victims need food and other materials, it is important for farmers to get adequate assistance to enable them to get back to the fields.
“Otherwise, most of the farmers might abandon the paddy fields and find whatever job that is available to them,” he said.
