ENGLISH DEYEA NEWS

by Solomon | New Delhi (Mizzima) - After nearly six months of restrictions, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is recommencing the local purchase of rice in Burma to use in support of relief efforts for cyclone victims in the country's coastal regions of Rangoon and Irrawaddy Divisions.

Chris Kaye, Country Director of the WFP in Burma, told Mizzima in an email message that Burma's military government had informed the WFP that it could again purchase local rice after the organization was forced to stop buying locally in early June.

"The message [permission] was conveyed by the Minister for Agriculture and Irrigation during a meeting with our Deputy Executive Director at our HQ in Rome on 21st November," Kaye said in his correspondence.

He went on to say the WFP has since begun purchasing rice locally and supplying it to cyclone victims, a program that is scheduled to continue until the end of April 2009.

Kaye said the permission has saved "time and money. Imported rice is more expensive and takes longer to get into the hands and mouths of people who need it. It can take several weeks to procure rice from overseas and have that rice shipped to Myanmar [Burma]."

WFP was officially requested to stop buying rice locally by the government on June 11, and since then has been importing rice from India and Thailand to be supplied to cyclone victims.

A source in the military establishment told Mizzima in June that the government had stopped WFP from purchasing rice locally as it could lead to food shortage that might in turn result in hikes in overall commodity prices.

"The government feared that a rise in prices might instigate agitation among the people and result in civil unrest like that of August and September 2007," the source said.

Kaye explained that the government's request to stop purchasing rice locally was in view of the "potential risk at that time of a reduced harvest and the impact our purchases would have on prices in other parts of the country."

He said WFP stopped the purchase to make sure that its purchases would not have a negative impact on the food security of the country.

The source, however, said the Burmese government, after calculating that it could stabilize food security, was again permitting the WFP to purchase rice locally.

"The government thinks that it can now ensure that WFP's purchasing will not destabilize the overall price of commodities, that's why they are again allowing the purchasing of local rice," the source, who wished not to be named, added.