The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said Thursday that roughly $8 million is needed to help Nepalese farmers rapidly recover lost agriculture inputs and resume preparations for the imminent rice sowing season. "There is a critical window of opportunity to help crop producers plant in time to have a rice harvest this year and regain their self-sufficiency," FAO representative in Nepal Somsak Pipoppinyo said in a statement. "At the same time, we need to do all we can to preserve vital livestock assets which provide affected families with much needed income and nutrition." FAO said that the possibility of the lack of rice, the country's staple food, together with likely losses of food stocks and wheat and maize harvests would "severely" limit food supplies and incomes in Nepal, where roughly two-thirds of people rely on agriculture for their livelihood. Although damage to the agriculture sector from last week's 7.8-magnitude earthquake has not yet been assessed, affected families likely have lost livestock, crops, food stocks, and valuable agricultural inputs. The disaster has destroyed markets and infrastructure, including roads and crucial irrigation and drainage canals.
