B'desh raises storm alert, urges swift rice harvest

I keep watching out for some good news on the increasing food shortages, but I only find stories like this.

Bangladesh on Tuesday asked farmers to speed up their rice harvest as the country braces for a powerful cyclone likely to hit in two or three days.

Cyclone Nargis is about 1,200 km (750 miles) southwest of Bangladesh's Chittagong coast and likely to gain strength in the Bay of Bengal as it nears the coast.

British-based storm tracking service Tropical Storm Risk (http://tsr.mssl.ucl.ac.uk/) rated Nargis as a category 2 storm on Tuesday and it was expected to reach category 4 strength in 36 hours. Category 5 is the maximum category for tropical cyclones.

The Bangladesh government issued a local number 2 storm warning at Chittagong and other ports and urged residents along the coast to be ready for quick evacuation.

Bangladesh has been facing serious food shortages after last year's floods and a cyclone, which together damaged nearly 3 million tonnes of rice, the country's main staple.

The headline links to the source.