According local people from the Cyclone Nargis affected area, the conditions have made it difficult for farmers to work their land without losing money. “We took loans from the rich people to start farming and planting, but the amount of rice we can produce is going down day by day. So farmers are caught in a vicious circle of loans and the benefits are going to the rich people,” said Win Maung. “We depend on our farms for income, but after Nargis we don’t have cows, tractors, harrows and even ploughs. All we have is land filled with silt.”
The farmers received a further setback after Cyclone Nargis because the unseasonable weather did not stop. “There was heavy rain in the dry season and it destroyed our crops. We had to borrow money to survive and we owed more and more amounts of money,” he said. According to residents of Labutta and Bokalay townships, the local authorities charged money for distributed material and equipment such as fiber boats, tractors, tool sets, etc.
On May 2-3, 2008, Cyclone Nargis devastated the Irrawaddy Delta and some parts of Rangoon Division, killing over 130,000 people and leaving millions homeless.