Rice output in Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam is forecast to fall this year but stay above five-year averages in Cambodia and Thailand, according to the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO). Elsewhere in East and South Asia, the UN agency forecast below-average production in North Korea, Myanmar, Nepal and Sri Lanka --mainly due to limited availability and high prices of agricultural inputs-- as well as Bhutan, Indonesia, Japan and South Korea. But above-average output is forecast for Bangladesh, India and China. For corn, the FAO forecast "bumper outputs" in Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines but below-average production in Vietnam. The FAO said acute food insecurity had risen in East and South Asia this year. "The depreciation of the national currencies in many importing countries has made imports costlier," the UN agency said, highlighting increasing food inflation rates in Laos, Mongolia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. For the whole of Asia, nine countries need external assistance for food--including North Korea and Sri Lanka, both suffering "widespread lack of access to food", and Bangladesh, Myanmar and Pakistan which face "severe localized food insecurity," the UN agency said. (Source: Khmer Times)