These photos were taken on July 30th 2016 in Pay Kay village tract, Lu Thaw Township, Hpapun District. The photos show rice paddy leaves in Pay Kay village tract which turned grey following caterpillars and mice attacks on the villagers’ hill farms and plain farms. After the insect attacks, many villagers were no longer able to collect paddy grains or work on their farms to gain a harvest. Furthermore, many villagers did not have any other job opportunities to earn their livings. Some villagers can only collect very few paddy grains from the rice field and cannot produce enough rice for their family to sustain themselves for the year. Accordingly, they face a food shortage. [Photos: Karen Agriculture Department]

These photos were taken on July 14th 2016 in Kheh Pa Hta plain farms at Kheh Pa Hta village tract, Lu Thaw Township, Hpapun District. The first photo shows villagers gathering their nursery paddy plants in order to prepare to plant nursery paddies on their farms. They were only able to collect half of the nursery paddy plants which they planted (four baskets of paddy grains) because insects destroyed the rest of the nursery paddy plants. The second photo shows Saw A---, an upset farmer who had half of his nursery paddy plants destroyed by caterpillars. As a result, he did not have enough nursery paddy plants to plant on the six acres of his plain farm. While he was sitting on his farm land he expressed that only paddies stems are left after the attacks. The third photo shows caterpillars attacking paddy plants and the fourth photo shows a plastic bag full of caterpillars that the owner had removed from the plants. The villagers did not have enough money to buy insecticide and moreover, no one sells insecticide near the villages because they live in deep rural areas [which are hard to access by traders]. Farmer Saw B--- testified, “I cannot buy insecticide to kill caterpillars on time because my village is not close to any insecticide shops. The only insecticide shop is in Hpapun Town. If I go to Hpapun Town, it will take two days and one night to walk [to Hpapun from Kheh Pa Hta plain farms]. If I travel for two days, caterpillars will eat all of my young paddy plants because there are too many caterpillars [on the farm].” Saw A--- also reported that he had to plant nursery paddy plants twice in order to collect enough nursery paddy plants to plant his entire field. Nevertheless, he is not sure whether or not he will be able to collect enough paddy grains for the year. He said that without a sufficient amount of paddy grains he won’t have enough money to buy [additional] rice to support his family. In cases like this, villagers like Saw A--- may need to rely on support from local humanitarian providers. [Photos: KHRG]

The two photos above were taken on September 3rd 2016 at Aee Su Khee village, Aee Su Hkee village tract, Bilin Township, Thaton District. The first photo shows mice that were killed on the hill paddy farms where the mice attacked. The second photo shows the hill paddy farms of Aee Su Khee and Wah Tho Plaw villagers that were attacked by mice during the growing season. As the paddies could no longer be cultivated after the paddy plants were damaged, the villagers grew sesame plants on their hill farms instead. Villagers who live in Aee Su Hkee village tract and other village tracts in Bilin Township mainly cultivate hill and plain farms and live in rural areas. When bamboo shoots in the local area were blossoming in the beginning of 2016, villagers noted a significant increase in the amount of mice that started attacking the paddies. The mice destroyed all of the paddy plants that they planted during the rainy season. According to KHRG researchers, almost all of the hill farms in Aee Su Khee village tract were ruined and many of the hill farm’s owners could not work on their farm any longer. Villagers reported to KHRG researchers that they would definitely face food shortages in 2016 and 2017. Naw D--- and Saw E--- also reported, “We cannot find any other jobs for our livelihood and there are no jobs opportunities here. We try to cut bamboos to earn some income but the bamboos were also blossoming [not ready for cutting] so we cannot do anything to earn a living. We are planning to do logging and log bamboos but before we can start, we have to get permission from the KNU leaders. If we are not given permission, we will not have any other [livelihood] options” [Photos: KHRG]