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| A farmer in the Irrawaddy Delta region west of Rangoon, Burma, ploughs a field with a home made machine, 03 Jun 2008 |
A United Nations food agency is appealing for more money to help
fishermen and farmers in Burma who were hard hit by Cyclone Nargis.
The
Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization issued an appeal Thursday
for $33.5 million to help. Nargis hit the Irrawaddy Delta in early May,
affecting more than 50,000 small-scale farming households and twice as
many fishermen.
The U.N. agency says the cyclone flooded close
to 800,000 hectares of rice fields and destroyed up to 85 percent of
seed stocks in the country's agricultural belt.
It says three-quarters of farmers in Burma lack sufficient seed to plant next years' crops.
The FAO says another 99,000 landless rural households in the Asian country need immediate assistance.
Rice and fish constitute key components of the Burmese diet.
Some information for this report was provided by AP.
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