By Bernama,
Yangon : One more cyclone-hard-hit township, Dedaye, in Myanmar’s southwestern Ayeyawaddy delta, has started with monsoon paddy ploughing in a collective manner, the state-run Xinhua news agency said quoting a report in local newspaper, New Light of Myanmar, Friday.
Using powered tillers provided in place of storm-swept draught cattle, the local farmers are striving to meet a cultivation target of 182,143 acres (73,767 hectares) of monsoon paddy.
The Dedaye township, which United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visited during a recent trip to Myanmar storm-hit areas, is another township where land reclamation was made next to Laputta township in the same division.
Farmers in the Laputta township have received a loan of over 441 million Kyats (over US$400,000) disbursed to them with the provision of paddy seeds and fertilizer for the restoration agricultural works in the area, earlier report said.
Besides sending some 600 buffaloes to the area, the authorities have also provided 238 powered tillers for ploughing some paddy fields in the area damaged by the storm.
Other reports also said some hundreds more of powered tillers have also been supplied to other devastated townships such as Ngaputtaw, Mawlamyinegyun and Bogalay to prepare for re-cultivation of farmland.
Ayeyawaddy division was traditionally known as the “rice bowl” of Myanmar.
According to official statistics, over 1 million acres (405,000 hectares) of cultivable lands were flooded with sea water in seven townships in Ayeyawaddy division, three in Yangon division, two in Bago division and three in Mon state during the storm with over 200,000 draught cattle killed.
Myanmar estimated the damage and loss caused by the storm at US$10.67 billion with 5.5 million people affected. Of the affected, over 1 million homeless have been rescued and evacuated to temporary shelter, the authorities claimed.
Myanmar government has said that large amount of fertilizer, more fuel and hand- and power- tillers are needed for cultivation to replace the cattle lost in the storm as well as fishing boats and vessels, fishing gears and fuel oil for resuming fishery work.
The official media consoled the Ayeyawaddy delta dwellers saying that they would have to withstand the difficulties only this monsoon season beginning June through to October. In the forthcoming harvest season after the monsoon and winter, the whole Ayeyawaddy region will have been rehabilitated with thriving paddy fields and crop plantations by next year.
The government also claimed that it has spent up to 70 billion Kyats (US63.63 million) in the relief efforts.
Deadly tropical cyclone Nargis, which occurred over the Bay of Bengal, hit five divisions and states on May 2 and 3, killing 77, 738 people and left 55,917 missing and 19,359 injured, according to the official-released death toll.