By Xinhua,
Yangon : Farmers in Bogalay, one of the hardest-hit townships in Myanmar’s southwestern Ayeyawaddy delta region, were putting the already harvested paddy along the roadside and exposing them under the sun, in an effort to prevent them from being spoiled, the 7 Days news journal reported Saturday.
Most of the harvested paddy in stock and many rice mills in the region were destroyed by the violent tidal wave caused by Cyclone Nargis early this month.
According to an estimation of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), about 1.7 million acres (nearly 700,000 hectares)’s paddy cultivated area were destroyed in the division in cyclone.
Statistics showed that the country’s paddy cultivated area stood at 8.1 million hectares with a production amount of over 30 million tons in the last fiscal year of 2007-08. With paddy as its main crop, Ayeyawaddy division is Myanmar’s rice bowl, which produces most of the rice in the country.
Meanwhile, the authorities claimed that the first phase work has been under way, including rescue of storm victims, provision of temporary shelter, supply of food and clothes and healthcare. The second phase sets domestic construction entrepreneurs to take part in the rehabilitation of the victims by promptly helping rebuild their wrecked houses in towns and villages mainly in Ayeyawaddy and Yangon divisions.
The third step will re-generate farmlands which were flooded by sea water in the storm.