Cyclone-hit fields left idle as Myanmar planting season ends

LABUTTA, Myanmar: Kyaw Thein thought his problems were solved when Myanmar’s government delivered seeds, cattle and tillers to his village to help restart rice farming in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis. The 53-year-old farmer, whose home was destroyed in the cyclone, was one of 19 of the 91 households in his village in the Irrawaddy Delta chosen to receive help with their fields. But the cattle, brought in from a mountainous region of Myanmar, proved ill-suited to the work, and fewer than half the donated seeds sprouted. “If you sowed five bags, only two bags would grow,” Kyaw Thein told AFP. “Our cattle and buffalo who survived are mentally distressed because of the cyclone, and we cannot get them to work. The new cattle brought in are very thin and have no energy.” The planting season here has now ended, meaning Kyaw Thein... [read full story]