Govt again plays down impact of drought

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government again played down the impact of the months-long drought, saying only 170,000 hectares or 1.4 percent of the country's total rice-growing land of 11.8 million hectares had been adversely affected by the drought.

Director general of food crop production M. Jafar said that of the 170,000 hectares stricken by the drought, only 17,800 hectares experienced complete harvest failure to date.

Assuming that each hectare of the paddy field is capable of producing 4.4 tons of unhusked rice per harvest -- the national average -- domestic farmers have lost a total of 78,320 tons of unhusked rice so far, worth Rp 90 billion (about US$10 million) due to the drought, Jafar said.

The value is calculated based on the current purchase price of Rp 1,050 per kilogram set by the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) for farmers' unhusked rice.

"This is small compared to the country's total unhusked rice output, which is projected at 52 million tons this year worth Rp 80 trillion," Jafar was quoted by Antara as saying.

He further said the impact of the current drought was still minimal compared to the 1996 to 2000 period, wherein drought affected an average of 190,000 hectares of paddy fields and caused harvest failure to 31,000 hectares per year.

The statement was the latest in the string of statements made by government officials to allay the public's worries that the current drought would severely hit the country's rice harvest and force the government to import more rice this year.

Earlier, Bulog chief Widjanarko Puspoyo said that despite the current drought, he was optimistic that the agency's rice imports for this year would probably be lower than the initial assumption of 1.1 million tons, citing the country's total rice yield provided by the Ministry of Agriculture.

Last year, the agency imported 1.5 million tons.

Minister of Agriculture Bungaran Saragih said the country's unhusked rice output for the first 7 months of the year had already reached 50.8 million tons, and thus he expressed optimism that the output target of 52 million tons for this year would be achieved.

Fifty-two million tons of unhusked rice is equal to 30 million tons of husked rice.