Villagers worried as bad weather disrupts cultivation

28 April 2015 — Continuous rains in parts of Chin State, Burma since last month have caused problems for farmers, interrupting seasonal work in their subsistence farming.

Chin farmers from at least 30 villages in the two townships of Thantlang and Falam have not been able to burn their fields in time to prepare for crop cultivation.

“Weather conditions have become very irregular. Those whose fields have not been burnt by now are likely to reap bad harvests. It is a real worry for them for the next year,” Ngun Hre, from Hriphi village, told the Hakha Post.

Pu Thla Kio Lian, an NGO manager who had seen the situations during his recent trip to villages, spoke of his grave concern about possible food shortages facing the villagers following failure to burn their paddy fields, according to the Chinland News.

He added that villagers normally burnt their paddy fields before the end of March.

In an attempt to get prepared in advance for weather conditions like this, residents in Hakha had made requests for publication of weather forecasts in the news.

To this, Papui, chief editor of the Hakha Post, replied that the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology said they didn’t have the authority to pass the information to the media.

“At first, they said they would be able to give us copies of the reports which had already been sent to the authority. But later, they said they could not give them to us without official permission from the authority,” the Hakha-based chief editor said.

The majority of people in villages and remote areas in Chin State depends on shifting subsistence farming.#