Aid agencies used to desperate situations are facing an unexpected problem keeping survivors of the Myanmar cyclone alive — the cost of feeding them is soaring because rice prices are at record highs.

Up to one-million people who managed to survive as Cyclone Nargis bore its deadly path through Myanmar need emergency food and aid, and some shipments of high-energy biscuits are trickling to the worst-hit areas.

But over the next six months, high rice prices will send the cost of the long term relief effort rocketing, meaning donors will have to dig deep, said UN World Food Programme spokesperson Paul Risley.

"That wasn't a problem that we or other humanitarian agencies had a year ago, but we do now," Risley told AFP.

"It means that donors will have to provide more cash. It means that the cost of recovery operations — not only in Myanmar but around the world — has increased because of the general rise in food commodity prices."

The export cost of Thailand's staple Pathumthani Fragrant Rice was at $1053 per tonne on Wednesday — up more than 150 percent from $410.80 this time last year, Thai Rice Exporters Association figures show.

According to a rough AFP tally, the world has so far pledged about $50-million in aid as Myanmar struggles to cope with the disaster, which according to official figures left about 60 000 dead or missing when it hit overnight on Friday.

In the short term, that money will be needed for expensive goods such as helicopters and heavy-lifting equipment to ferry immediate food and medical assistance to the worst-hit regions.

Longer term, the cyclone tore through the country's key rice-growing area, and although much of the year's first crop had been harvested, there are fears that a once self-sufficient country will not be able to feed its people.

A UN Food and Agriculture Organisation spokesperson in Bangkok told AFP that Myanmar's rice farmers must be given the help they need to plant their new crop in the coming months.

If fields were not drained in time or the soil not ready, it could force Myanmar to import food, pushing global rice prices even higher.

"This could contribute further to a global drain down of rice stocks," the FAO spokesperson said.

The WFP's Risley said that could have knock-on effects around the world.

"In particular for Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, who were hoping to purchase rice from Myanmar this year, this may force them to have to find other suppliers for the rice," he said.

Many humanitarian workers remain confident that the scale of the disaster meant foreign donors would be ready to give all they could to feed desperate survivors in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.

"Typically in a disaster situation, people open their hearts," said Bill Berger, the team leader with the US government's Disaster Assistance Response Team, which has not yet been allowed into Myanmar.

"In all of these rapid-onset disasters, our experience is that people around the world want to contribute," he said.

But David Mathieson, Myanmar consultant for New York-based Human Rights Watch, warned that the massive aid operation for the cyclone could detract from long-standing humanitarian concerns in Myanmar.

The Thai Burma Border Consortium, which feeds about 140 000 refugees from Myanmar living along the Thai border who fled atrocities at home, has already warned that rice prices may lead to cutting rations in the refugee camps.

Aid groups "are now paying more money for rice with less funding, and that has the potential to create a real crisis on the border, especially when the international community is now looking at recovery for the cyclone," he said.

"This is an opportunity — an unfortunate opportunity — for the international community to look at the humanitarian crisis in Burma as a whole."

AFP