Indonesian Lost About 30,000 Hectares of Farm Land

Indonesian Lost About 30,000 Hectares of Farm Land

Bloomberg/Jakarta

Indonesia lost about 30,000 hectares (74,000 acres) of agricultural land in the Dec. 26 tsunami, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization Director General Jacques Diouf said at a briefing in the capital, Jakarta.

Diouf said salinity of the soil caused by the flooding sea water is a major problem.

"We need to ensure that we deal with the problem of salt as quickly as possible," Diouf said today. "If it dries, it will start a chemical reaction" in the soil that will make growing crops difficult.

Almost 170,000 people in 12 countries died in the tsunami, two-thirds of them in Indonesia. Reconstruction in the devastated areas in Indonesia may cost Rp 36 trillion (US$4 billion), Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Aburizal Bakrie said yesterday.

The World Food Program plans to increase food distribution by 25 percent to 500,000 people in the next 10 days. It had given aid to 400,000 people as of yesterday.