by Mizzima News
Friday, 10 July 2009 22:32
Rangoon (Mizzima) – Paddy fields in Pyinsalu, Laputta Township, Irrawaddy Division have been inundated with saline water and destroyed, following bidding for sea-water prawn fishing, local residents said.
Fishermen, who bought the fishing rights of sea water prawn farming at biddings, open and close the dyke frequently, which was constructed to protect the paddy fields from being inundated with saline water.
“The local authorities (Village level Peace and Development Council – VPDC) sold the fishing rights at Kyat 3 million. The shrimp farm owners, who acquired the fishing rights of sea water shrimp farming continuously open and close the dyke which protected our paddy fields from saline water. They do this to catch shrimps and prawns. As a result the paddy fields were inundated with sea water damaging all the fields,” a farmer from Pyinsalu told Mizzima.
After Cyclone Nargis lashed the delta region in May 2008, many paddy fields in this village were damaged by saline water and only a few of them can be cultivated this year. Now these paddy fields have been inundated afresh with sea water. All the saplings were damaged, a local farmer said.
“After the cyclone, paddy could be cultivated only on 200 acres of a total of over 1,000 acres. These 200 acres can yield only 20 baskets per acre, which is a decrease from previous yields of about 50 baskets per acre. It does not cover even our production costs. We survived only with relief supplies provided by the cyclone relief teams. With our paddy fields damaged this year too, we have no idea what to do next,” a farmer who owns over 50 acres of paddy fields and has lost all seeds and saplings to saline water this year said. (1 basket of paddy=46 lbs)
In most of the cyclone-hit areas, fish-shrimp farming and paddy farming are being done in a fifty-fifty ratio.
Though the farmers have lodged a complaint with the local authorities against the negligence and reckless shrimp fishing and farming, the authorities said that they gave the contract to shrimp farm owners to raise funds for the Nargis Rehabilitation Programme.
“The fact remains that the money they received is just Kyat 3 million, which is nothing in comparison with the loss in paddy farming. There are over 1,000 acres of paddy fields in Pyinsalu. They broke the dyke to let the sea water in damaging half our paddy fields,” the first farmer said.
The official in-charge in Burma of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) recently said that they badly need assistance to build the dykes and embankments in this region.
The official Shin Mao said, “We need to either repair or to raise the height of the dykes and embankments over at least 1,000 kilometres. Now we have repaired about 100 kilometres only”.
It is very important to protect the paddy fields and farmlands from saline water and it will cost at least USD 100 million to do so. The sea water damages not only the paddy fields but also water resources, he added.
A farmer from Pyapon Township said that their farmlands around the township were not inundated with sea water as they took precaution in advance by making and repairing all the necessary dykes and embankments.
“Damage to paddy fields has not yet been experienced here. We built dykes to a height of about five metres. The entire paddy will be damaged if the fields are inundated with sea water,” he said.
The farmers in Pyapon Township have started to receive farm loans at the rate of Kyat 30,000 per acre at an interest rate of 2.5 per cent. The farmers living around Latputta Township received only Kyat 10,000 per acre as farm loan.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
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