"In July 2018, Myanmar experienced severe monsoon floods and landslides, which devastated several states including Kayin, Mon, Tanintharyi and Bago. At least 20 people died, 268,438 were displaced, and infrastructure damage was estimated at US$3.6 million. Farmers were especially hard hit. “Our paddy fields were completely destroyed. Since the roads were damaged, we could not work in the fields or go to the market to sell our produce,” says Daw Yi Htwe, a mother of seven who ekes out a living growing rice. “The children couldn’t go to school and had to stay at home.” Daw Yi Htwe’s children range from nine to 30 years in age, the eldest having left the town for work in Thailand. She wants them to be educated and have a better future. Paddy farming forms the backbone of Myanmar’s agriculture. Mon state has approximately three million acres of arable land, most of it rice paddies. When monsoon flooding hit 90 percent of the crop damage was in the paddies, and small-scale farmers were hardest hit. Ah Hta Ya village, with its unpaved roads and wooden houses with sloping roofs, sits next to the Attran river that elegantly snakes through the landscape. Picturesque as this might seem, and despite the benefits for agriculture and rearing livestock, the river’s proximity can wreak havoc during the monsoon..."