81 Villages in Banyumas Threatened by Drought, Government Must Anticipate

Center of Reform on Economics (CoRE) researcher Eliza Mardian has spoken out regarding 81 villages in Banyumas, Central Java, currently threatened by drought. Eliza stated that although Banyumas’s rice production proportion to Central Java’s provincial rice production is around 3%, the high number of drought-prone villages in Banyumas serves as a serious warning signal for the government to anticipate immediately. “With timely, integrated, and science-based anticipation—not merely reactive—the impact can be minimised, and it could even become a momentum for transformation. The government needs to move from disaster management to proactive climate risk management. Now it is just a matter of consistent, transparent execution that sides with small farmers,” said Eliza on Tuesday (7/7). She continued that the implications of this drought do not only impact production figures; there are dimensions of farmer welfare, price stability, and local food security that are also threatened. Furthermore, a decrease in output at the micro level will directly erode farming household incomes, widen inequality, and potentially increase poverty rates in rural pockets of Banyumas. Although Banyumas contributes a small portion to total national production, Eliza emphasised that the important lesson is how recurring local shocks can erode confidence in food self-sufficiency if not anticipated structurally. “This phenomenon underlines the vulnerability of Indonesia’s agricultural system to climate change, where the frequency and intensity of droughts are projected to increase. Without serious adaptation, long-term food security targets could be threatened even if current national production shows a positive trend,” she explained. Nevertheless, the central and regional governments have prepared anticipatory measures such as mapping vulnerable areas, emergency clean water distribution, construction or repair of irrigation infrastructure, optimisation of reservoirs and dams, and promotion of drought-resistant rice varieties such as the Inpari and Situbagendit groups, which deserve appreciation. However, she continued, this approach still tends to be reactive and partial, dealing more with the symptoms of the drinking water crisis rather than fundamentally building agricultural irrigation resilience, and is less integrated with a more holistic Watershed management. “The government needs to rehabilitate and expand technical irrigation networks to increase the cropping index, build community-scale water conservation infrastructure such as check dams and village reservoirs, and conduct massive dissemination of superior varieties adaptive to drought stress. Precision agriculture pilot projects and drip irrigation on marginal land could be innovative steps for water use efficiency,” she clarified. She stated that integrated watershed management through reforestation and soil conservation upstream must also be a priority to increase natural water retention. Research and breeding of super-drought-resistant varieties tailored to local Banyumas conditions also need to be strengthened through collaboration between BRIN, universities, and relevant ministries. Eliza assessed that diversification of the farming system with rotation or intercropping of more water-efficient crops on rain-fed land is necessary, along with budget policy reform that allocates special climate adaptation funds in the regional and state budgets, not just emergency response funds, which will form the foundation of long-term resilience. “The drought in Banyumas is a reflection of the urgent need to transform Indonesian agriculture to be more resilient to climate change. The success of anticipation will determine whether we just keep putting out fires every dry season or actually build a foundation for sustainable and equitable food self-sufficiency for small farmers,” she concluded.