Food shortfalls loom in Myanmar, warns UN

“Malnutrition, particularly childhood malnutrition is quite severe,” WFP Asia director Tony Banbury said. “More than one third of children in the country are suffering from one form of malnutrition or another.

“The concern now is that the price increases and the increased restrictions on the movement of food are going to make a bad situation even worse,” he said, warning that the post-monsoon “lean season” lasts until November.

Last week’s rallies — in which Buddhist monks led up to 100,000 marchers in what was dubbed the “saffron revolution” — were the climax of a series of rallies that started with a small protest over food prices early this year.

“The very first recorded walking demonstrations in Rangoon (Yangon) in February were right after the price of rice had doubled,” said the WFP’s spokesman in Thailand, Paul Risley.

“All of a sudden 30 people started walking, and since then the demonstrations built and built, and then fuel prices went up in August.”

Myanmar watcher Win Min said many people in the country were surviving on about one dollar a day and increasingly struggling to feed their families, with many eating rice and vegetables but little meat, eggs or other protein.