Cyclone wipes out rice crops in Bangladesh

Business Times 3 Dec 07;

DHAKA - A CYCLONE that killed thousands of people in Bangladesh has destroyed at least 800,000 tonnes of rice in the fields.

This exacerbates a food shortage that the government was already grappling with, a government adviser said.

Cyclone Sidr last month wiped out 553,000ha of crops, causing losses totalling about 20 billion taka (S$420 million), said Mr C. S. Karim, agriculture adviser to Bangladesh's army-backed interim government.

'In the present situation, the country would need to import a total of 1.9 million tonnes of rice,' he added.

Meanwhile, New Delhi will allow Bangladesh to import half a million tonnes of rice from India, a visiting Indian minister said on Saturday, easing an export ban on the staple food.

The announcement by Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee came after neighbouring Bangladesh appealed for international help earlier in the week to prevent a food crisis in the impoverished nation following the Nov 15 storm.

Mr Mukherjee, who was on a one-day tour of cyclone-hit areas, said the 'magnitude of the natural calamity' prompted India to remove the ban on rice exports to Bangladesh.

India, the world's third largest rice exporter, clamped a ban on rice exports two months ago in a bid to reduce soaring domestic prices of the food staple that were causing anger among consumers.

Cyclone Sidr, the strongest since 1991 when another storm killed around 143,000 people along Bangladesh's coasts, came close on the heels of devastating floods from July to September that killed more than 1,000 people and washed away about 1 million tonnes of rice.

Mr Karim said the country would also need to import two million tonnes of wheat to meet the food shortfall.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS