By Zwe Ko / MPA
Flooding in several townships across the Bago Region this year has submerged approximately 100,000 acres of monsoon rice fields, causing extensive damage, according to farmers.
A 40-year-old farmer from Ahlatkyun Village in Taungoo shared that from 13 September to 17 September, 2024, flooding has continued to affect Taungoo Township in the Bago Region, exacerbating the damage to rice fields.
“The water level has not yet receded. The rice fields remain submerged. The current is strong, and some rice plants have been uprooted. In our area alone, about 50,000 acres of rice fields have been destroyed. There was already some damage from earlier floods,” he said.
The monsoon rice crops were nearing harvest, so the floods have resulted in significant losses, according to a 30-year-old female farmer from Mone Township.
“The rice was nearly ready for harvest, and the grains had already appeared. Now, with the flooding, there is nothing we can do. All our hopes were gone, and we had cost at least 600,000 kyats per acre. I am devastated, and I have been crying as both my house and rice fields are submerged. There is nothing left to do,” she lamented.
The Bago Region relies heavily on agriculture for its livelihood, and recurring floods have left many farmers facing severe hardships, explained a 50-year-old male farmer from Khamon Village in Letpadan Township.
“In our area, the water has not yet reached a critical level, but it is rising. If it floods, everything will be lost. The recent rains were heavy, now the rice plants have fallen down already. Many fields were destroyed in previous floods as well. In our town alone it has about 30,000 acres, but there is no time left to replant. We will have to leave the fields as they are,” he said.
The State Administration Council (SAC) had collected 3,000 kyats per acre from farmers, with the promise of providing compensation in the event of natural disasters affecting their crops. However, as of now, farmers have not received any compensation, according to a 40-year-old female farmer from Atyaw Village in Thayarwaddy Township.
“We have not received any assistance yet. All the fields are submerged. We lost about 10 acres. They keep telling us the compensation will come today or tomorrow, but we have seen nothing so far. The authorities told us we would receive about one lakh per acre after surveying the fields, but it has been two months, and we still have not received anything,” she explained.
On 16 September, the State Administration Council (SAC) announced that approximately 650,000 acres of monsoon rice and other crops had been damaged across Myanmar due to flooding in September.
According to farmers, in the Bago Region, over ten thousand acres of farmland have been left uncultivated due to a combination of flooding and conflict in affected areas, as farmers have fled their homes amid ongoing clashes.
In 2023, a combination of below-average rainfall during the early monsoon season and heavy flooding in the late monsoon season resulted in the destruction of over a million acres of rice fields, significantly reducing rice yields.
