Rice crops in Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar have taken a hit from flooding and conflict this year, casting a shadow on a mostly sunny outlook for Southeast Asia’s output of the key grain as the region deals with other potential longer term supply troubles, farm officials and researchers say.

Poverty and hunger are stalking some rural communities in peninsular Southeast Asia, also called Indochina, as a result of lost crops, hitting populations still struggling to recover from lost income and other fallout from widespread economic disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

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The post Southeast Asia remains world rice bowl as pockets of region suffer crop disasters first appeared on Open Development Mekong.

Efforts to eradicate hunger are stalling within the Asia Pacific, with almost 500 million people in the region lacking access to sufficient food.

[…]”However, in the last one or two years, it’s countries in South-East Asia, particularly in the Mekong region being Myanmar and Thailand and countries like Mongolia have had serious weather-related issues.

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The post Call for more Australian leadership as hunger rises in South-East Asia first appeared on Open Development Mekong.