EC adds 1.2m euro humanitarian aid
Wednesday, 21 April 2010
The European Commis-sion's Humanitarian Aid Department has allocated 1.2 million euro as humanitarian aid to address the impact of rodent crisis in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), reports UNB.
The Commission has already allocated 3.65 million euro since the crisis began to assist the most affected population with food and income generating activities, a release of the European Commission (EC) said.
The people living in the remote areas of the CHT are still facing severe food insecurity due to a three-year-long rat plague, which affected their crops. Every 40-50 years the bamboo plants produce flowers which, when consumed, cause the rats to reproduce at an accelerated rate.
The rats have eaten up seeds, crops and food stocks leaving an estimated 130,000 people with inadequate food sources or incomes.
Most of the indigenous people of the CHT practice jhum cultivation, which is a way of shifting land use for seasonal crop production.
Data collected over the last few months show that the farmers have only been able to cultivate between 30 and 50 per cent of their normal outputs.
Although the rats are declining in numbers, crops are now being destroyed by an increased number of wild pigs in the forests. Communities normally depend on sales of bamboo to boost their incomes. After flowering, the bamboo dies and takes five years to regenerate.
The Commission has already allocated 3.65 million euro since the crisis began to assist the most affected population with food and income generating activities, a release of the European Commission (EC) said.
The people living in the remote areas of the CHT are still facing severe food insecurity due to a three-year-long rat plague, which affected their crops. Every 40-50 years the bamboo plants produce flowers which, when consumed, cause the rats to reproduce at an accelerated rate.
The rats have eaten up seeds, crops and food stocks leaving an estimated 130,000 people with inadequate food sources or incomes.
Most of the indigenous people of the CHT practice jhum cultivation, which is a way of shifting land use for seasonal crop production.
Data collected over the last few months show that the farmers have only been able to cultivate between 30 and 50 per cent of their normal outputs.
Although the rats are declining in numbers, crops are now being destroyed by an increased number of wild pigs in the forests. Communities normally depend on sales of bamboo to boost their incomes. After flowering, the bamboo dies and takes five years to regenerate.