BANGKOK (Reuters) - More than 50,000 farmers in cyclone-hit Myanmar will be unable to plant a new rice crop by August unless they receive immediate aid, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Wednesday.
In the first major assessment of the damage wrought by theMay 2 cyclone on Myanmar's rice bowl, the FAO said 570,000hectares of land was submerged in 11 badly-affected townshipssurveyed by the U.N. agency and government officials.
"We are talking about 52,000 farmers which, if they are notsupported, will not be in a position to come back for thecultivation of paddy monsoon crop in 2008," FAO specialistAlbert Lieberg told a news conference.
That translated into a potential loss of 183,000 hectaresof rice paddy, equivalent to 500,000 tonnes of rice or 2percent of the country's total output, he said.
The FAO launched a fresh appeal for $83 million (43 millionpounds) in emergency and long-term agricultural assistancenearly seven weeks after the storm left 134,000 dead or missingand 2.4 million destitute.
Some $32 million will go to meet the immediate needs offarming families, such as providing rice seed, ploughinganimals and other materials to help them plant a new crop.
The storm surge wiped out up to 85 percent of rice seedstockpiled by farmers and killed 120,000 draught animals. TheFAO said it hoped to find 5,000 new animals within Myanmar.
"If the programmes are implemented there is a possibilitythat these people might make it," Lieberg said.
(Reporting by Darren Schuettler; Editing by Ed Cropley andValerie Lee)
