Farmers in the Irrawaddy delta urgently need arable land, machinery, buffaloes, rice seeds, fertilizer and more. It all costs money and forces many farmers deeper into debt... PYAPON, Burma — "?THE thought of crop failure worries me so much,? said Win Tun, an elderly farmer, squatting on a bank in his unplowed field under the scorching sun. ?I?m afraid the next cyclone that hits us will be the spiral of debt.? Win Tun is not alone. There are thousands of farmers in the Irrawaddy delta whose land has been inundated with seawater and who have lost their traditional ?machinery?—cattle and buffaloes—in the cyclone that struck on May 2-3. An estimated 780,000 hectares (almost 2 million acres) of agrarian land was ruined and more than 200,000 cattle and buffaloes died in the cyclone. Normally, a farmer?s greatest fear is that a crop fails or yields a poor harvest. Missing a season is unthinkable. A farmer would have to work for nothing and buy everything on credit. Private donors and organizations have supplied mechanical tillers, plows and tractors to many needy farmers as part of the humanitarian relief effort. Money was also allocated for vital supplies, such as seeds, fuel and fertilizer. For their part, the military authorities arranged for the purchase and transfer of buffaloes to the delta. However, reports suggest that only a small minority of farmers received the supplies free of charge. Most had to apply through official channels for support and agree to pay back loans in installments, with annual interest rates running at about 17 percent..."