Drought creates hardship for Japanese farmers

By Sri Wahyuni

YOGYAKARTA (JP): Mohammad, a farmer from Klendetan village in Purworejo, Central Java, has for the past several months had to ride dozens of kilometers a day on his bicycle in search of grass for his cow.

"Otherwise my cow will die because there's no more fresh grass in my village. This cow is my only source of hope for extra income," said the 45-year-old farmer. The cow has so far produced only one calf, which Mohamad sold for Rp 200,000 (US$66).

Mohammad, who has two children, has abandoned his 800-square- meter, dried up rice paddy because there has been no water to irrigate it. His last harvest was early last year.

Mohamad grows soybeans during the dry season, and usually gets 80 kilograms per harvest which equals about Rp 80,000.

His other source of income is from making palm sugar. He used to produce two kilograms a day, but during this prolonged dry season he has only been able to produce half the usual amount. Furthermore, he has to split the money with the owners of the 20 coconut trees, of which he taps the sap as raw material for the sugar.

Since he can no longer plant rice, side jobs have become his main source of income. "Now I'm happy if I can even buy one kilogram of rice each day. My wife finds vegetables still left in our backyard to cook," he said.

Mohammad wished that rains would come soon. "We put our fate in God's hands," he said.

The signs of severe drought are evident in the three major districts of Ngombol, Purwodadi and Banyuurip -- which have traditionally been the rice-producing areas of Central Java.

Thousands of hectares of rice paddies have been left uncultivated for two months since most farmers had their last harvests. The soil is now extremely dry and cracked, sometimes with fissures as wide as 10 centimeters.

Irrigation from the Bogowanto River, which usually waters more than 5,000 hectares of fields in the three districts, can no longer supply enough mater.

"The water is now only about ten centimeter deep, flowing only about 500 liters per second," said Waidin of the Bogowanto Hilir Irrigation Office.

The normal water flow was 5,300 liters per second, with a depth of about 1.2 meters. The river was drying up and produced even less water every day, Waidin added.

The local authorities, however, had not considered the situation a cause for alarm. Soehadi, the Purwodadi district administration secretary, pointed out that it was only recently that farmers made their last harvest.

The only impact of the dry season was that farmers now had to delay their planting, he said.

Waidin also said some rice farmers had temporarily switched to planting watermelon or chili peppers. In order to water their fields, they built diesel-powered water pumps.

Some farmers, however, said they could not even come up with the capital needed to dig wells or start planting watermelon.

"You need at least Rp 300,000 to start with. In this difficult season, where can we find that much money?" a farmer said.

Water

Farmers are not the only ones suffering from the impact of the drought. Mrs. Kumen, a vendor in the tourist area of the Sempor dam in Gombong, Kebumen regency, some 125 km west of here, is an example.

For the past several months, her small, bamboo-mat walled restaurant on the dam bank has rarely seen customers because there have been no tourists.

"Most tourists come to enjoy the water sport activities near the dam. If there is no water, what can they enjoy?" she asked.

Dozens of other food or souvenir vendors in the area have stopped business for the same reason. Some have even abandoned their villages and sought a livelihood in cities.

A source at Serayu-Bogowanto Rivers' Area Development Project Office in Sempor said dam water volume was only 5.85 million cubic meters, but its effective volume (which can be used for irrigation or other purposes) was 4.25 million cubic meters.

The dam's normal volume is 52 million cubic meters and its normal effective volume is 46.5 million cubic meters. The dam usually irrigates 6,500 hectares of rice paddies.

But now part of the bottom of the dam is showing and becoming dried and cracked.

"We have asked local farmers to delay planting until rains come and the normal volume of the dam is recovered," the source said.

The same problem is happening to the Wadaslintang dam in nearby Kebumen. By the end of August, the dam was recorded to have only 155 million cubic meters of water and an effective volume of 120 million cubic meters.

The dam usually irrigates 31,000 hectares of rice paddies with a normal volume of 443 million cubic meters and a normal effective volume of 308 million cubic meters.

Social impact

Sociologist Loekman Soetrisno of Gadjah Mada University voiced concern over the social impact of the drought. Compounded with the ongoing currency crisis, the drought posed a serious national problem that could be dangerous unless it was solved by the end of the year, he said.

Loekman, head of the university's Center for Rural and Regional Development Studies, said poor farmers seemed to suffer the most because they depended on their harvest for their survival.

Losing two harvests consecutively in one year would directly affect their food supply and force them to depend on the market, he said. When they did not have enough money to buy food, the farmers would lower the quality of food they consumed.

"They begin substituting rice with tiwul (made of cassava). If the drought continues, they may be forced to reduce food quality even more and start eating gogik (also made of cassava)," Soetrisno said in a recent discussion.