UN Warns of Food Shortage from ASEAN Floods

The United Nations has warned of a possible severe food shortage and price surge as more than 15 million rai of farmland in the ASEAN region have been damaged in this year's flooding disaster.

The Food and Agriculture Organization, or FAO, of the United Nations has expressed some concern as Thailand, one the largest rice exporters in the world, has lost more than 10 million rai of its farmland, or about 12.5 percent of the country's agricultural production, to the worst flooding disaster in more than 50 years.

The FAO predicts that the rice export for 2012 will fall by about a third from the projected 10 million tons.

Meanwhile, the Philippines, another major rice exporter, has also been severely affected, as about 6 percent of its agricultural output has been destroyed by natural disasters.

As a result, it is likely that the country will have to scrap plans to lower the amount of rice imported from 2.45 million to 500,000 tons.

At the same time, it estimated that about 12 percent of Cambodia's agricultural production has been wiped out while Laos may have lost about 7.5 percent of its crops. Moreover, Vietnam has lowered its projected rice export from 7.5 million to 7 million tons.

Its plan to increase the rice production by 3 million tons has been set back as well.

As for Thailand, according to the latest official figure, floods have already caused more than 400 deaths and affected more than 2 million people while a massive amount of floodwater is closing in on Bangkok.

Over the past years, the UN has advised Thailand to put in place an effective flood prevention system to protect the capital from being deluged but no concrete project has been initiated due to inconsistent policies from different administrations and lack of a long-term plan.

On the other hand, the UN believes that ASEAN could learn from this flooding disaster to implement more effective flood prevention in the future.

The UN hopes that the issue will be brought up at The ASEAN Meteorology Meeting to be held soon in Brunei.

Meanwhile, the American press has recently praised His Majesty the King on his vision and finding flood solutions.

The King has repeatedly warned of over-development and demonstrated a way to reduce flood damage, which is exacerbated by high tide and flash flooding.

-- Tan Network 2011-11-03

"...worst flooding disaster in more than fifty years."

Fifty years to plan and advance efforts against perrenial flooding, yet...

"...no concrete project has been initiated due to inconsistent policies from different administrations and lack of a long-term plan.

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