Absence of rain delays cultivation in Chin state

by Mizzima News
Friday, 03 July 2009 15:00

New Delhi (Mizzima) – Total absence of rainfall in Chin state, western Burma has put farmers in a spot as they are unable to cultivate paddy, said locals and a social organization.

Normally the onset of monsoon is in May in Chin state. However, with monsoon proving to be elusive, farmers in nine townships in the state cannot begin cultivation.

“It has not rained yet. In previous years by this time it had begun to rain in Hakha and across Chin state,” said Salai Cinzah, in-charge of Chin Humanitarian and Relief Committee (CHRC) based in India’s northeast state of Mizoram.

Hakha is a place where the rainfall is usually the highest.

Meanwhile, Burma’s Meteorology and Hydrology Department on Tuesday said rain is likely soon in Chin state.

“Rain will be isolated in lower Sagaing and Magway Divisions, scattered in Chin and Kayah States and Mandalay Division, fairly widespread in Shan State and Taninthayi Division and widespread in the remaining areas. The degree of certainty is 80 per cent,” said the weather forecast in Burma’s state newspaper the New Light of Myanmar on Tuesday.

Cultivation of paddy has been adopted by many just for earning a livelihood not for commercial purposes.

After bamboo flowered in Chin state in 2007, rats which ate the flowers multiplied in huge numbers. The rats then destroyed crops in fields in Hakha, Thangtlang, Matupi, kanpalat and Mindat townships in Chin state. As a result, farmers in the rat infested townships faced severe difficulties in sowing seeds and growing paddy plants.

In some villages in Thangtlang Township, the rats ate and damaged the entire paddy.

“The rats are back again. I don’t know from where the rats appeared after we began work in the field. If we sow the seed at night, there will be nothing the next day. The rats eat them all. It is impossible to continue plantation in the field,” a villager from Hnaring village in Thangtlang told Mizzima.

There are 80 acres of farmland in Hnaring village. However, cultivation has not started yet.

“The absence of rain has made it worse and the rats have come back again,” Win Hlaing Oo, Director of Country Agency of rural Development in Burma (CAD) told Mizzima.

Another villager in Matupi Township said, “Most of farmers in Chin state cultivate paddy on the hillside and only a few on plain land. There is no rain to grow the paddy and the rats are back. That is the problem.”