950813

Floods wreak

havoc on

Thai rice fields

BANGKOK: Heavy rains and flooding have severely damaged 162,000 hectares of farmland, mainly rice fields, in northern and northeastern Thailand, a government official said

Ananta Dalodom, director-general of the Department of Agricultural Extension, told Radio Thailand that the worst affected areas were in the provinces of Phayao and Chiang Rai in the north and Udon Thani and Nong Khai in the northeast.

About 80 percent of the farmland hit by floods was planted with rice while the rest were maize, soybeans and vegetable fields, he said.-Reuter