Jakarta, July 29 (Antara) - The Indonesian government is preparing itself to face the drought that has been forecast to last till October or November this year and may affect 3.3 million hectares of rice fields in the country.
since last month, several provinces in Indonesia have been hit by a dry spell, which was triggered by a moderate El Nino phenomenon. It has caused a shortage of water supply and affected rice fields and irrigation in these regions.
"We held a lengthy discussion with the agriculture minister (Andi Amran Sulaiman) this morning. I asked him to be prepared for three scenarios," Vice President Jusuf Kalla said in Jakarta on Tuesday (July 28).
Measures, including providing funds, will be taken to alleviate people's burden that may result from either the worst, medium or minor impacts of the drought.
"We will inspect the extent of the impact the drought may have, if triggered by a moderate El Nino. We will find solutions," Kalla affirmed.
In addition, the Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing will check the irrigation system in the country to see whether the supply of water is still running well. If not, the government will use water pumps to overcome the problem.
Data showed that till June 30, five of the 16 main dams in the country had run short of water. These were the Keuliling Dam in Aceh, the Batutegi Dam in Lampung, the Saguling Dam in West Java, the Wonogiri Dam in Central Java and the Bening Dam in East Java.
If water in the dams is no longer adequate to simultaneously supply all regions, the government will apply an efficient water consumption technology that will rotate the supply of water from the dams to the regions.
Moreover, the dry spell has affected farmlands, particularly the rain-fed rice fields. To maintain their productivity, they should be provided with both shallow and deep wells to produce water.
"The government is trying to handle the impacts of the dry spell on rain-fed rice farms with a permanent solution. It is developing retention reservoirs as well as deep and shallow wells," Agriculture Minister Andi Amran Sulaiman said on the sidelines of his working visit to Giriroto village, Ngemplak sub-district, Boyolali district, Central Java, on Monday (July 27).
To prevent agricultural land from staying idle during the dry season, the government is launching a program on the construction of wells and retention reservoirs. Based on this, it will build some 20,000 deep/shallow wells and retention reservoirs across the country, including in Giriroto village of Boyololi.
Minister Sulaiman pointed out that the government had set aside Rp2.2 trillion as funds to implement the program to build retention reservoirs and deep/shallow wells near rain-fed rice fields throughout the country.
"The funds have been taken from the Ministry of Agriculture and the Special Allocation Fund scheme," the minister added.
For Boyolali, he has asked the local government to submit a proposal soon for the construction of 100 shallow wells in the rice fields in the district.
"We hope the wells are built within the next two weeks so that the lands of local farmers are not affected by the dry climate. Therefore, their land will not stay unused but remain productive. Local farmers will also be happy," Sulaiman remarked.
During his visit to Temanggung district (Central Java) on Tuesday, the minister noted that there were some 3.3 million hectares of rain-fed rice fields that were prone to be affected by drought in Indonesia.
The government's retention reservoir and well construction program is expected to be an effective way to save them.
"Indonesia has 8.61 million hectares of rice fields, of which some 3.3 million hectares are fed by rainfall. These are often affected by drought. We have a budget of more than Rp2 trillion to construct wells and retention reservoirs," he reiterated.
Sulaiman also stated that drought, floods and pests had led to crop failure in 159 thousand hectares of agricultural land in the country, in the October 2013 to July 2014 period.
However, the acreage of rice fields affected from October 2014 to July 2015 dropped to 57 thousand hectares.
The minister hopes that the preventive measures will successfully suppress the rate of harvest failure caused by drought, floods and pests.
The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency predicted that the current dry season will last till October. As a result, people will face difficulties in obtaining clean water, and rice plantations in certain regions will be threatened with harvest failures.
Earlier, the head of the Information Data Center and Public Relations of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said that the ongoing drought in a number of regions in Indonesia will peak in October or November.
The drought, he added, was triggered by a moderate El Nino phenomenon, the impacts of which are felt in regions south of the equator.
Places that will be affected in Indonesia are West Sumatra, Bengkulu, Jambi, South Sumatra, Bangka-Belitung, Java, Bali, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) and Maluku.
Although the effects of El Nino this year will be fewer than those in 1997, the current drought will have worse impacts than those in 2014, particularly in Java, Bali, NTB and NTT. ***4***(T.A014/INE)EDITED BY INE(T.SYS/A/BESSR/A. Abdussalam) 29-07-2015 22:06:1 |
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