Kantarawaddy Times
Due to the rising water level of Balu Chaung river, farmlands and rice fields along the Shan-Karenni border have been submerged, forcing farmers to harvest their crops amid the floodwaters, local farmers said.
“The water’s been rising for a while now, up and down, up and down. Whenever it rains, it rises even more. We have to harvest by hand. We just keep harvesting, put the rice in tarpaulin, and then people have to pull it back,” said a local farmer.
Because they fear the rice will be damaged by the floodwaters, locals are rushing to harvest both unripe rice and rice plants that are not yet ready for harvest, the farmer added.
As the farmlands are flooded, farmers said they will no longer be able to harvest the yield they had expected. The cost per acre, including seeds, fertilizer, and labor, is at least around 800,000 kyat, according to the farmers.
Some farmers said they had taken loans to fund their cultivation, and the flooding of their rice fields has created serious difficulties.
“It’s not just our daily living that’s in trouble. We won’t even be able to repay our debts. Everything was done on loans. Next year, we won’t be able to farm again. We might have to sell off our farmland just to manage. It’s a lot of hardship, not just for our livelihoods but also for our children’s future,” said another local farmer.
Farmers from at least 15 villages, mainly rice-farming villages, are facing losses and are worried about their livelihoods for the coming year.
Last year, too, rice fields in the Shan–Karenni border area were submerged and destroyed by a powerful storm.
