Cyclone Nargis took more than 130,000 lives and left more than 2 million homeless, the U.N. says, quoted by CNN. It appears that a second catastrophe awaits if new rice is not planted in the coming weeks, a potential massive food shortage.

“We are all going to die here, “farmer U Han Nyunt said, quoted by the same source. “But not because of the cyclone. We will die because we have no food,” he added.

The problem is, says Concepcion Calpe, a senior economist with the FAO, “that a lot of it was still in the field and it was completely wiped out. It appears that farmers tried to salvage some of the yield by drying it, but the country has entered its rainy season, and they will need to plant in the next two months if they stand any hope of a second yield.

“No rice will grow here for a very long time,” said Han Nyunt. “The soil is dead because of the flood water that the storm brought.”

“We are trying to dry the seeds in the sun,” he explained. “But it is hopeless. Once the seeds have started sprouting like this, we can't plant them anymore. All we can do is feed them to the animals.”

The government expected to export nearly 600,000 tons of rice and aid groups hoped that the delivery would help mollify the recent global panic over scarce rice. However, it is unlikely that Myanmar will be selling rice to Sri Lanka, Bangladesh or other countries.

Myanmar residents consume about 44 pounds of rice every month, compared with 15 pounds in Asia.