In Brief: Flood-hit farmers face hunger in Laos

Photo: Kees Metselaar/UNDP

Funds are urgently needed to assist farmers affected by Ketsana, according to the FAO

VIENTIANE, 26 October 2009 (IRIN) - 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.

ey/ds/mw