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YANGON : A Myanmar minister has denied that food shortages will hit the country, despite swathes of rice paddies being destroyed when Cyclone Nargis struck last month, state media reported Wednesday.
The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation has warned that national food security could be compromised unless the rice planting season urgently begins in the fertile Irrawaddy Delta region, which was pummelled by the cyclone.
But in the New Light of Myanmar daily, minister for national planning and economic development Soe Tha denied any such problem.
"Some organisations were spreading groundless information such as there was or would be shortage of rice in Myanmar," the newspaper reported him saying.
"The rice output in the storm-affected areas in Ayeyawady (Irrawaddy) and Yangon divisions made up only 2.3 percent of the nation's total rice output. The uncultivable acreage is barely 1 percent of that of the whole nation."
The figures contradict the official view of the FAO which released a statement last month saying the five states hit by the May 2-3 cyclone produce 65 percent of the country's rice.
It estimated that 16 percent of the 1.3 million hectares (3.2 million acres) of agricultural land in the delta has been seriously damaged.
Hundreds of thousands of the 2.4 million people affected by the cyclone in Myanmar are already going hungry because of ruined rice stocks and soaring food prices, the organisation said.
While planting should have taken place in early June to stave off a future food crisis, aid agencies say farmers have not yet returned to their land because of lack of shelter and food.
Paul Risley of the UN's World Food Programme warned last week that the next harvest was likely to be lost, which he said could be "catastrophic" and could force the formerly self-sufficient Myanmar to import rice.
The United States gave its backing Tuesday to a UN expert's report raising concerns about Myanmar's recent referendum and called on the military rulers to release all political prisoners.
US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack also called on the country's military rulers to uphold their pledge to give international aid access to victims of last month's Cyclone Nargis, which left 133,000 dead or missing.
"The US shares the conclusions of the UN human rights monitor in his sobering report that the referendum on the regime's draft constitution was far from credible," McCormack said in a statement.
Washington also agrees that the continuing detention of political prisoners, including democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, and the condition under which they are held is "appalling," he said.
"The United States continues to urge the Burmese regime to release all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, and to begin a genuine dialogue with democratic and ethnic minority leaders on a transition to democracy," he said.
McCormack added that Washington shares the conclusions that Myanmar "must respect the human rights principles of non-discrimination and accountability in the international effort to assist the victims of Cyclone Nargis."
In a report last week, the UN special rapporteur for Myanmar, Tomas Ojea Quintana, raised "significant concerns" over the referendum held in the wake of the devastating cyclone, and called for a public report on the event.
- AFP/ir
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