WFP may need rice imports for cyclone-hit Myanmar

By Darren Schuettler

BANGKOK (Reuters) - The World Food Programme might need to import rice for its aid programmes in cyclone-hit Myanmar where farmers in the Irrawaddy delta rice bowl are struggling to plant a new crop, a spokesman said on Wednesday.

The U.N. food agency, which provided food aid in northern and central parts of Myanmar before the May 2 cyclone, could also have a presence in the delta for up to a year, WFP spokesman Paul Risley told reporters.

"The losses to production of rice in this area are very specific and very deep," he said, adding "it would be very typical for the World Food Programme to continue providing food rations for farmers in the delta certainly through the next six months and next harvest."

The WFP is still supplying extra rations of rice and other food in coastal areas of Bangladesh seven months after Cyclone Sidr killed nearly 3,500 people.

"This cyclone was of even greater magnitude," Risley said of Cyclone Nargis, which left 134,000 dead or missing and another 2.4 million destitute in Myanmar.

The agency has delivered 8,500 tonnes of food to cyclone-hit areas and aims to supply 750,000 people over the next six months.

The WFP, which tries to buy locally, signed a contract in Myanmar last week for 10,000 tonnes of rice, corn, beans, lentils and other pulses -- roughly six weeks of food assistance.

It also received clearance from the junta to import 400 tonnes rice from a French naval ship docked in Thailand that was not allowed to deliver aid directly to Myanmar.