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)