Widespread flooding and devastation across Southeast Asia destroy millions of hectares of crops: FAO
Heavy monsoon rains since mid-July in some areas have claimed hundreds of lives, displaced millions of people and destroyed homes, infrastructure and agriculture, FAO said. “The floods occurred when the current main wet season cereal crops were in the field, with paddy rice at the initial to mid growing stage, and maize at an advance critical flowering stage”
Disaster Calendar 2011 – October 25
[October 25, 2011] Mass die-offs resulting from human impact and the planetary response to the anthropogenic assault could occur by early 2016. SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,604 Days Left to the ‘Worst Day’ in Human History
- Southeast Asia. Widespread flooding in SE Asia including Cambodia, LAO People’s Democratic Republic, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, has destroyed millions of hectares of rice paddies and cropland, with the Mekong river basin hit the hardest.
- Heavy monsoon rains heavy rains since mid-July in some areas have claimed hundreds of lives, displaced millions of people and destroyed homes, infrastructure and agriculture.
- “In addition, loss of livestock and poultry is reported and significant numbers are considered to be at risk.” FAO reported.
- “There are concerns of serious food shortages in the affected communities due to the difficulties in delivering food assistance.”
- Thailand. Floods have inundated more than two third of the country (62 of Thailand’s 77 provinces), claiming about 360 lives, destroying or damaging at least a million homes, displacing 2.4 million people and affecting up to 10 million more.
- Thailand is world’s largest rice exporter and was forecast to export about 10.6 million tons (or 31 percent of the global trade) of the grain this year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said.
- About 1.6 million hectares of standing crops (12.5 percent of total national cropped area) is destroyed or damaged according to the latest official estimates released last week. The actual figures could be as high as 3 million hectares or nearly a quarter of the total national cropped area.
- “According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, nearly 9.9 million heads of livestock are at risk. It is expected that this estimate will rise in the central plains as the flood waters are topped by water discharges from major dams which are beyond or almost at full capacity.” FAO said.
- The export price for grade B Thai white rice, Asia’s benchmark, has climbed by 13 percent so far this year to $625 per ton on October 19, reports said.
- Vietnam. The world’s second largest rice exporter, Vietnam , have seen at least 0.5 percent of its total national cropped areas inundated.
- Cambodia. As of 14 October, at least 1.2 million people were severely affected by the flooding, which has destroyed thousands of homes and inundated at least 332,000 hectares of rice fields (“at least 158 447 hectares of the crop damaged from the current main wet season, which accounts for about 80 percent of the annual national production.”)
- Philippines. The world’s largest importer of rice has sustained damage to about 420,337 hectares of cropland, according to preliminary records, with losses estimated at about 728,379 tons of rice or 16 percent of the national production. “Overall, latest estimates indicate that about 4 million people have been affected and at least 485 000 hectares of standing crops, including rice, maize and high value commercial crops (HVCC) have been damaged or lost to the floods. The affected cropped area covers 6 percent of the total national cropped area. Additionally, nearly 3.3 million livestock and poultry have been affected.”
- Additionally, some 600,000 tons of milled rice were destroyed from two typhoons that struck the country earlier this year, officials said.
- LAO People’s Democratic Republic. About 430,000 people have been affected and at least 64 000 hectares of rice paddies have been damaged since the end of June, according to official estimates. However, a detailed assessment of the crop losses is not yet available. Some areas that were affected by floods in June-July were replanted.
FIRE-EARTH models show an average decline of 22% in the global agricultural output in the next four years resulting in MASS DIE-OFFS. About 20 percent of the world population could perish by 2016.
Related Links
- Global Disasters in 2011 Could Impact 1/3 to 1/2 of the Human Population (FIRE-EARTH Forecast)
- Back to the Primordial Future
- Mass Die-offs (FIRE-EARTH Forecast)
- The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities (EDRO Forecast)
- 2011 Much More Disastrous: FIRE-EARTH Forecast
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