As the scale of the disaster in Burma caused by Cyclone Nargis starts to emerge, relief agencies and rich countries are lining up to provide emergency aid. But with agencies already hit hard by soaring food prices, and Burma's own rice crop devastated, it is not clear where the relief will come from.

Nargis hit Burma on Saturday, bringing with it a reported oceanic storm surge more than 3 metres high, which is said to have destroyed some low-lying towns. The storm wreaked havoc throughout the heavily populated delta of the Irrawaddy River in the south, and hit the country's largest city, Rangoon.


Burma's military dictatorship today revised its earlier estimate of several hundred killed and admitted that at least 22,000 are dead – with thousands still missing. Many more people have been made homeless by the disaster.

... the WFP, the world's largest provider of food aid, is already struggling under huge rises in basic food prices over the past few months, including rice prices that have trebled since December.

But people are likely to need assistance for months, and even if WFP and other aid agencies get enough money to keep buying food, there may be little to buy. Several major rice producers, including India, Vietnam and China, have banned or limited rice exports this year to protect their own supplies.

Burma was an exception. It was expected to export half a million tons of rice, including to Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, which will not produce enough themselves this year – Bangladesh's shortfall is due to damage from another cyclone last November. Now much of Burma's rice crop has been devastated.