El Nino to affect this year's commodities: Minister

El Nino to affect this year's commodities: Minister

JAKARTA (JP): Severe drought affecting the archipelago,
believed to be caused by the weather phenomenon known as El Nio,
will lower the national output of commodities this year, Minister
of Agriculture Sjarifudin Baharsjah said yesterday.

Sjarifudin said he expected the drought would reduce the
production of certain commodities, with coffee and tea being the
worst affected.

"Coffee output may drop to between 30 percent and 35 percent
this year, because the drought has affected the productivity of
plants," he said.

Indonesia produced 295,000 tons of coffee last year.

Tea production this year might also drop by 15 percent, he
said.

"Drought conditions have prevented the fruit from ripening,"
he said.

Sjarifudin said the dry conditions would only slightly affect
rubber and palm oil production this year, and would not affect
tobacco and sugar yields, as their harvest was over.

"Nationally, palm oil production will not be lowered this year
because of the drought, but individually, many plantations have
been affected by the forest fires," he said.

He said although many oil palm plantations had been razed by
the forest fires, which had been worsened by the drought,
plantations in the unaffected areas had begun planting and that
would provide additional production.

El Nio, an oceanic and atmospheric anomaly affecting weather
around the world, is a phenomenon which occurs every two to seven
years and has made its 10th appearance in 40 years.

The minister said the drought also reduced production of
coconut in Lampung, tea in West Java, coffee in East Java and
cotton in Central Java, East Java, Southeast Sulawesi and West
Nusa Tenggara.

He also said there was reduced cocoa output in South and
Southeast Sulawesi.

Tea plantations in West Java, rubber plantations in South
Kalimantan and South Sulawesi, coconut plantations in North and
Central Sulawesi, cocoa plantations in Southeast Sulawesi, cashew
plantations in Central Sulawesi and East Nusa Tenggara and coffee
plantations in Irian Jaya have suffered from the dry spell, he
said.

Sjarifudin said the drought had also reduced planting areas
for rice to between 2 percent and 3 percent.

As of the beginning of this week, about 425,800 hectares of
rice plantations had been badly affected by the drought, 63,383
hectares of which were completely parched, he said.

He said the ministry would have to wait for data released by
the Central Bureau of Statistics before it could estimate rice
production this year.

However, he said no one should worry about the rice
supply until the next harvesting season as this year's stock was
enough until next year.

He said rice planting would also start earlier next year,
using prime seedlings.

"During extreme dry conditions, we usually plant rice in dry
fields, which don't require much water," he said. (das)