Before the cyclone, Aye Kyu and her husband regularly found work as day laborers in the paddy fields belonging to farmers in the surrounding villages. In the wake of the cyclone there has been little work, forcing Aye Kyu and her husband to take loans at rates of interest as high as 25 percent a month. Thousands of cyclone-affected households in the delta are falling into a debt trap because job opportunities are still few even though 18 months has passed since the cyclone. Agriculture and fisheries, the two major industries in the storm-affected area, were severely hit. According to the Rapid Food Security Assessment released by the United Nations’ World Food Programme in March, the vast majority—83 percent of sampled households—reported being in debt because they had to buy food.
Interest rates vary from place to place, with some money-lenders taking between 5 and 20 percent and others between 25 and 50 percent, depending on the situation of the borrowers. Though interest rates are high, the cyclone-affected debtors find it difficult to borrow money unless they can find loan guarantors in their villages.