Drought causes Rp 8.4b in losses in East Java

Drought causes Rp 8.4b in losses in East Java

Yogita Tahilramani and Edith Hartanto, The Jakarta Post,
Surabaya, East Java

This year's drought has dealt a severe blow to East Java province
causing the country's major rice producing area to suffer losses
to the tune of Rp 8.4 billion.

The loss has been caused mainly by a water shortage, ravaging
hundreds of thousands of hectares of paddy fields and crops in 12
regencies.

Chief of the administration's information and communication
division Suprawoto said on Wednesday that at least 4,440 hectares
of paddy fields across the province had been hit by drought, and
another 150,000 hectares of rice, corn and soybean fields may go
absolutely dry.

East Java produces around two million tons of rice for the
national stock every year.

Some 65 percent of East Java's population of 35 million
comprise of farmers, including fishermen, poultry farmers and,
farmers who grow rice, soybean and corn.

Suprawoto said that the suffering of East Java's farmers could
worsen if extra care was not taken, since this year alone some
6.5 million tons of rice had spoiled.

Farmers across the province, particularly those from severely-
hit areas like Ngawi and Lamongan have rejected thousands of
water pumps provided to them by the administration, stating that
the fields had turned into "rock-hard ground".

The administration, however, continues to provide more pumps
for drought-prone areas. Suprawoto said that the administration
had no other choice.

It had initially thought of working in collaboration with the
Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) to
seed clouds, he said.

But the plans were abandoned after BPPT said there was a 70
percent chance of failure, due to the lack of clouds and
unfavorable climatic conditions.

"There is only a 30 percent chance of success to produce rain.
That's just way too expensive considering that we would be
spending Rp 700 million for each shot," Suprawoto told The
Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

Conditions could worsen since the water level in several dams
in East Java -- which are used to irrigate the paddy fields --
has dropped drastically due to the water shortage, be it from the
rivers, ground water or even rain.

"We're afraid that East Java will not be able to meet its rice
production target this year due to the drought," Suprawoto said.

Up until May this year, East Java had only produced around
5.46 million tons of rice or around 62 percent of this year's
target, which is about 8.83 million tons.

Lamongan, Ngawi and Nganjuk are the hardest hit regencies as
the nearby reservoirs could no longer provide water, Suprawoto
said.

Selorejo and Bening reservoirs near the town of Malang are
among those with sharply diminishing water levels. The reduced
water supply from the Selorejo reservoir will definitely affect
Jombang and Kediri while similar conditions in Bening reservoir
are bound to worsen the effect of the drought in Nganjuk area.
Farmers could not do anything in those areas, except to watch
their fields turn into plots of dried and cracked ground.

Aside from the prolonged dry season, East Java's water
problems lie in the fact that the province receives little water
from the Bengawan Solo river which stretches from Central Java to
East Java.

"East Java depends on the water supply from the Bengawan Solo,
the water gate of which is located at Central Java's Gajah
Mungkur reservoir and is controlled by Central Java officials.

"This year we got only 24 percent of water compared to 29
percent last year. This is a problem, because during the wet
season they (Central Java officials) opened the water gate to
avoid flooding in their area and let the water run through East
Java severely flooding areas like Lamongan and Bojonegoro,"
Suprawoto said.

But when it is dry season, Central Java holds the water by
closing the water gate, so East Java ends up with a severe water
shortage, he said.

"There's nothing much we can do about that. We can't depend on
Central Java anymore in this situation. It's the same every
year," Suprawoto said.

In a bid to cope with the problem, East Java will start
distributing another 439 shallow water pumps this month to areas
worst hit by water shortages.

Each pump is expected to save around 15 hectares of paddy
fields, of which one hectare of land can produce around 5.5 tons
of husked rice.

"So 439 pumps can save around 6,000 hectares," he said,
adding that some 718,000 hectares of paddy fields with irrigation
facilities were not included in the water pump scheme.