ID :
16752
Sat, 08/23/2008 - 07:48
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/16752
The shortlink copeid
Laos may face rice shortage due to recent flood
(KPL) During the recent four-day floods, five people died and flood water inundated 46,555 hectares of land and caused a loss of 24 billion kip.
According to a recent report of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, the flood situation was serious from 11-16 August. Flood water submerged 28,186 hectares of rice fields and 5,000 hectares of land that were planted with crops. Borikhamsay suffered the most from the flood water as 15,410 hectares of its land were under water and its neighbouring province,Khammouane had 13,000 hectares of land under water.
Government officials said that 30,000 families suffered from the flood. As the government is aware of this, it is working with private and stateorganisations to assist the flood-stricken families.
Before the encroachment of floodwater, the Lao government was making a concerted effort to increase the agricultural production: from one million tonnes of rice in 2007 to 2.7 million tonnes in 2008. But, the recent flood affected many rice-growing areas, which is likely to prevent the target frombeing fulfilled.
Mr Sisavat Homdala, technical officer of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, told KPL news yesterday that Laos might face a shortage of ricebecause of the damage caused by the flood water to rice fields.
In spite of such a setback, the government is doing its best to get more people to grow rice and other crops for consumption and for sale, said MrSisavat.
Speaking to the KPL, he said, 'to overcome the problem of shortfall in rice production, the government would provide farmers with seeds of fast growingcrops.
This includes, for example, certain strains of rice mature at a much fasterrate than the common rainy season strain.
This could give farmers both cash and food at a time when they need them most and also reduce the shortage of rice" The Lao National Land Authority said recently that it had a plan to expand rice production so that another two billion hectares of land would be underrice cultivation by 2020.
Over the past years the rice-growing areas had shrunk because of urbanisation, conversion to industrial tree plantations and hydropowerprojects.
According to a recent report of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, the flood situation was serious from 11-16 August. Flood water submerged 28,186 hectares of rice fields and 5,000 hectares of land that were planted with crops. Borikhamsay suffered the most from the flood water as 15,410 hectares of its land were under water and its neighbouring province,Khammouane had 13,000 hectares of land under water.
Government officials said that 30,000 families suffered from the flood. As the government is aware of this, it is working with private and stateorganisations to assist the flood-stricken families.
Before the encroachment of floodwater, the Lao government was making a concerted effort to increase the agricultural production: from one million tonnes of rice in 2007 to 2.7 million tonnes in 2008. But, the recent flood affected many rice-growing areas, which is likely to prevent the target frombeing fulfilled.
Mr Sisavat Homdala, technical officer of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, told KPL news yesterday that Laos might face a shortage of ricebecause of the damage caused by the flood water to rice fields.
In spite of such a setback, the government is doing its best to get more people to grow rice and other crops for consumption and for sale, said MrSisavat.
Speaking to the KPL, he said, 'to overcome the problem of shortfall in rice production, the government would provide farmers with seeds of fast growingcrops.
This includes, for example, certain strains of rice mature at a much fasterrate than the common rainy season strain.
This could give farmers both cash and food at a time when they need them most and also reduce the shortage of rice" The Lao National Land Authority said recently that it had a plan to expand rice production so that another two billion hectares of land would be underrice cultivation by 2020.
Over the past years the rice-growing areas had shrunk because of urbanisation, conversion to industrial tree plantations and hydropowerprojects.
