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Flood-hit farmers face hunger in Laos

Poverty remains a key challenge for large parts of the population Kees Metselaar/UNDP
    VIENTIANE

    Farmers in southern Laos who lost their harvests to floods caused by Typhoon Ketsana face a year of hunger if they do not receive rice seeds soon to replant their crops, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warns.



    Serge Verniau, the FAO's representative in Laos, said Ketsana had destroyed the harvest intended to feed families for the next six months, as well as seed stocks for the next cropping season in November, and the harvest from March to April 2010.



    "The timeframe is extremely limited to plant. We have November," Verniau told IRIN, adding that with funding, the agency would be able dispatch rice seeds from national seed centres to farmers within 10 days.



    "We do know that the families that we plan to reach could grow rice immediately, and could prepare their soil and immediately have nurseries and transplant the rice. So that's why there is urgency," he said.



    The FAO has asked for US$1,780,000 as part of a $10 million flash appeal launched last week to help victims of Ketsana, which on 29 September damaged an estimated 28,500ha of rice and crop fields.



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    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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