DROUGHT BEGINS TO SEVERLY AFFECT FARMERS, FOOD CROPS
By Andi Abdussalam
Jakarta, Aug 24 (ANTARA) - The ongoing drought in Indonesia has begun to affect food crops in various parts of the country, as farmers continue to face a shortage of irrigation supplies, which are resulting in a low crop yield, especially for rice.
Latest reports suggest that provinces such as West Java, Central Java, Banten, Bengkulu in Sumatra and East Nusa Tenggara have already been adversely impacted by the current drought.
In West Java, the regional government has set aside a fund worth Rp15 billion for handling drought-related disasters such as shortage of clean water and for plugging the agricultural irrigation deficit.
"The government had already predicted that West Java will be one of the nine provinces in the country, which will be prone to drought," Sigit Ujuwalaprana, the head of the West Java Regional Disaster Mitigation Agency said on Friday.
Meanwhile, anticipating poor harvests in the region, the Agricultural Service of West Java had already announced earlier that for the period of January to July this year, a total of 2,345 hectares of rice fields will fail to produce harvestable rice.
"Up to July 2012, the dry spells affected 38,111 hectares of rice fields, of which 166,923 were affected slightly, 9,939 hectares were relatively impacted more, 9,541 hectares were seriously damaged and 2,345 hectares failed to yield any rice," Uneef Primad of West Java Agricultural Service said.
The rice fields in West Java, which failed to yield a harvest, have been found in the districts of Sukabumi, Cinanjur, Garut, Tasikmalaya, Ciamis, Kuningan, Cirebon, Majalengka, Sumdang, Subang and Purwakarta.
"The hardest hit was the district of Sukabumi, where around 988 hectares of land failed to produce a harvest, followed by Ciamis with 399 hectares, Kuningan with 389 hectares, Subang with 136 hectares, Cirebon with 109 hectares, Majalengka with 82 hectares, Cianjur with 91 hectres, Garut with 77 hectares, Tasikmalaya and Sumedang with 26 hectares each and Purwakarta 22 with hectares," Primad said.
He added that he hopes that the drought does not hamper the regional government¿s target of planting rice over 2,008,015 hectares of land in the region for the October 2011 to September 2012 planting season. Until July this year, only about 1,775,040 hectares of land had been covered under rice plantation.
To handle the current drought situation, the provincial and district governments will provide alternative sources water through the construction of wells and clean water tanks, which will receive water from the regional government-owned tap water company PDAM, Ujuwalaprana from the West Java Regional Disaster Mitigation Agency said.
"14 districts have been declared drought prone, especially those which are largely made up of agricultural land and have failed to produce a rice harvest this year," he noted.
The neighboring province of Banten is also reeling under the impact of the region¿s ongoing dry spell.
The Lebak district in this province has been hurt the most by the drought, with the regional mitigation agency (BPBD) pegging its loss at about Rp90 billion.
"Drought has hit rice fields in 17 sub-districts and caused clean water scarcity in 19 others," Muklis, chairman of the BPBD said in Rangkasbitung, the district capital of Lebak on Wednesday.
Other sub-districts that are also facing clean water shortage include Wanasalam, Cilograng, Malingping, Panggarangan, Cihara, Rangkasbitung, Cibadak, Sajira, Cimarga, Muncang, Cipanas, Warunggunung, Cileles, Cijaku, Gunungkencana, Leuwidamar, Cikulur and Cijaki.
The local government has declared an emergency in the region from August 14 to September 14 on account of the drought.
"We have recorded a loss of Rp90 billion, and will now spend Rp4 billion on building pump wells to supply water to regions facing shortage," Muklis said.
The acreage of damaged rice fields in the region has reached 4,000 hectares. The head of the Lebak Agricultural Service Dede Supriyatna said farmers are also seeing their rice crop fail because most of them cultivate lands in the marginal areas.
To support these farmers, his office is willing to provide them with crop seeds to help reduce the burden of their losses, Supriyatna said. ¿I think the government has the obligation to assist them.¿ The parched season has also caused damage to rice fields in Central Java. In the district of Banjarnegara, for example, at least 202 hectares of rice fields have failed to produce a harvest.
"Till the first week of August, 202 hectares of rice farms had been affected by the drought. They are located in many sub-districts, including the sub-districts of Susukan, Mandiraja, Banjarmangu, Punggelan, Pandanarum and Kalibening," Head of the Banjarnegara Agricultural Service Dwi Atmadji said.
The drought has not only hurt agriculture in Java, but also in Sumatra and Nusa Tenggara.
In East Nusa Tenggara, at least 110 villages out of the 403 spread across 11 districts, are facing serious food scarcity. About 227 others are facing the same situation, but to a lesser degree.
"We are facing food scarcity because of the drought and uncertain weather conditions that have caused the local people¿s crops to fail," Alexander Sena, the head of East Nusa Tenggara Food Resilience Affairs said on Friday.
To tackle the food scarcity threat, the regional government of East Nusa Tenggara is stocking up 1,000 tons of rice. ¿We are now preparing the stocks, which will be stored in a warehouse of East Nusa Tenggara¿s national logistics agency Bulog,¿ Frans Salem, the regional government secretary of East Nusa Tenggara said.
In the Sumatran province of Bengkulu, farmers have been hurt by the drought in the last few months, which has affected at least 400 hectares of rice fields. ¿Even though the dry spells began several months ago and water levels started depleting, it is only in the last one month that we have felt the serious effects of the drought,¿ Ibnu Hafiz, a farmer pointed out.
He added that the region has experienced scanty rainfall since the middle of 2011, because of which the water levels in Lake Dendam Tak Sudah have continued to plummet. The lake is an important source of water for farm lands in a number of villages such as Jembatan Kecil, Panorama, Dusun Besar, Semarang, Tanjung Jaya and Tanjung Agung.
"Of the 400 hectares of rice fields, only less than 100 hectares were planted with rice due to the shortage of water. Despite that, 75 percent of these 100 hectares has already been damaged because of the dry weather," Hafiz said.
He also pointed out that farmers, whose land is near a water source, have tried to solve their water shortage problem by using machine pumps to draw water, but operating these pumps can cost up to Rp30,000 a day.
"If we do not irrigate our rice fields with water using these machines, we stand to suffer losses of around Rp10 million per hectare," he stated. ***2***
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