Myanmar exports rice while a tenth of population go hungry

WHEN one of the most destructive Cyclone's ever wiped out the main
rice producing region of a country once known as the rice bowl
of South East Asia food shortages were expected.

The UN World Food Program (WFP) acknowledges that there are indeed
acute food shortages affecting some 5 million people in parts of Myanamr.
However the 2.6 million people supported by WFP food
assistance is in sharp contrast to the hundreds of thousands of tonnes
of rice and cereal likely to be exported from Myanmar in the coming
year.

"It is one thing to be a food secure country with a positive balance
sheet saying that you produce more food than your population needs,"
said Chris Kaye WFP's Country Director and Representative in an
interview in the former capital, "but it is another thing to ensure
that the population is able to access the food that you're producing.
And a large proportion of people in this country can't."

Despite a fifty percent fall in rice production predicted in the
upcoming harvest in the cyclone scarred Ayeyarwady and Yangon
divisions, excellent weather and the use of better seeds has meant
rice and cereal outputs in the rest of the country last year were ten
percent higher than the average production of the last five years,
says a report covering 2008 and published by the World Food Program
(WFP) and FAO in January.

"It is indicative of the chronic poverty levels in this country," said
Kaye, going on to describe a lack of access to basic facilities in
many of the remote areas of the country; a drugs eradication policy in
the Chinese border regions of Kachin and Shan states that has left
opium farmers without an income; while lack of development in the dry
central region and the recent flowering of a rare bamboo flower in
Chin State that has caused an infestation of rats leading to
widespread food shortages in
an already underdeveloped region.

Malnutrition levels were reported to be particularly high in Northern
Rakhine State, where 120,000 of the Muslim minority, the Rohingya are
now living on WFP rice.
"In [Northern Rakhine State] it is government policies that restrict
their ability to trade and move commodities backwards and forwards
within the state and across the state," said Kaye, "Those restrictions
have a massive impact on people's abilitity to create sustainable
livelihoods and so achieve food security."

Many of the Rohingya have fled the persecution they face to go to
neighbouring countries, where they face further difficulties.
Allegations that the Thai Navy has allowed hundreds of Rohingya to
perish without adequate food or water in engine-less boats at sea have
risen to the surface in recent weeks.

"Solve the problem of the Rohingya and food security will be assured,
until that time there is not a sustainable outcome," Kaye explained,
going on to recommend a joint nutrition survey in Northern Rakhine
with the United Nation's Children's Fund, UNICEF and WFP.

Lack of funding for the UN agency last year forced the closure of its
Food for Education program in Northern Rakhine State and Kaye still
describes funding as his greatest worry for 2009, when the agency must
secure US$21 million to feed 1.5 million persons unable to grow or
access food.

Funding is also an issue in the cyclone hit Ayeryarwaddy delta, where
2.6 million people were affected by Cyclone Nargis last year and
damage to the livestock, fishing and agricultural sectors continues to
impact food security. The UN Recovery Fund for the affected region is
still just over fifty percent funded.