Drought will affect RI's rice production

JAKARTA (JP): The current drought plaguing Indonesia will bring down the country's rice production to just over 49 million tons from 51 million tons last year, Minister of Agriculture Sjarifudin Baharsjah said yesterday.

Speaking after meeting with President Soeharto, Sjarifudin said the severe drought would also affect other commodities, including coffee, tea and palm oil.

But despite the decline in rice output, Sjarifudin said there was no need to worry about a domestic shortage because enough was stockpiled by the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) to last for four or five months.

"There is no reason to worry about our national rice stock," Sjarifudin said.

He said the country's 200 million population consumed only about 31 million tons a year based on a per capita consumption of 130 kilograms.

But Sjarifudin warned that the current drought might be longer than expected as rains would not come before the end of December.

As of this month, at least 450,000 hectares of rice fields had been damaged by the drought, the minister said.

"Rice (unhusked) production will drop 2.2 percent from 51.3 million tons last year to only 49.1 million tons this year," he said.

His statement contradicted his prediction in July, when he expressed confidence that despite the long dry season, this year's rice output would still rise by 2 percent.

Rice is the main staple food for most of Indonesia's 200 million people.

To overcome the decline in output, Sjarifudin said the government would take special measures, such as speeding up the planting season.

The minister, however, did not say whether the government had any plan to import rice this year.

In 1994, hurting from a prolonged dry season and increasing population, Indonesia was forced for the first time in a decade to import rice to meet domestic demand.

"Tea output will also drop by 30 percent, coffee by 40 percent ... and palm oil by 30 percent -- especially in Riau, North Sumatra and Jambi," Sjarifudin said.

According to official statistics, tea plantations' total acreage in Indonesia was about 158,000 hectares with an output of 158,000 tons in 1996.

The export of tea from January to May this year totaled US$52.92 million.

Chairman of the Association of Indonesian Coffee Exporters Oesman Soedargo estimated last month that coffee production this year would drop by 60 percent.

The coffee harvest for 1997 was projected to fall to 180,000 tons this year from 500,000 tons last year, Oesman said. (prb/rid)