Myanmar's rice-growing heartland, which has been devastated by the recent Cyclone Nargis, has posed worries for long-term food shortages including rationing and political problems for its military regime.

The WFP has raised concerns about salvaging harvested rice in the flooded Irrawaddy delta, known as the country's rice bowl. It also warned that future plantings in the delta could be threatened because of "salinity and decrease of nutrients" from the storm's tidal surges.

Once the world's top rice producer, Myanmar hasin the past four decades seen its rice exports drop from almost 4 million MT to only about 40,000 MT.