NTT govt prepares for food crisis

Yemris Fointuna, The Jakarta Post, Kupang

The East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) administration is preparing emergency measures to cope with looming food and water shortages in the province as a result of a drought that is threatening crops, according to an official.

Frans Salem, head of the provincial social affairs agency, said a total of Rp 5 billion (about US$537,634) had been allocated to ease the crisis.

He told The Jakarta Post on Sunday that among the programs being planned by the administration were the provision of special seeds that can be grown in critical soil, the distribution of clean water and the introduction of a campaign to encourage some residents to switch from farming to fishing to help ensure food supplies.

The local office of the State Logistics Agency is preparing stocks of rice for areas experiencing food shortages, as well as helping to optimize the water supply, Frans said.

The risk of severe food and water shortages has risen with 12 of 18 regencies/cities in the province experiencing drought and crop failures. The risk of shortages is expected to continue for several months.

Frans said his office was expecting province-wide food and water shortages due to a lack of rain that has harmed thousands of hectares of agricultural land.

The local meteorology and geophysics agency has said the province can expect little rainfall in the coming weeks as the wet season comes to an end.

The agency said rainfall in the province this year was below normal, badly impacting the continuity of food supplies.

The 12 affected regencies/cities are Rote Ndao, North East Timor, Alor, Sikka, Ngada, East Flores, East Sumba, West Sumba, South Central Timor, Lembata, Belu and Kupang.

In Rote Ndao, the Post observed thousands of hectares of dry and cracked rice and cornfields, with very little water flowing through the irrigation system in the area.

Residents said they were desperate but did not know what they could do to overcome the situation.

"We're suffering here. Usually we've had two harvests by March, but this year all the rice and corn we planted last December has gone dry because there's no rain," a Rote Ndao resident, Frids Fanggidae, said.

The situation is similar in Kupang and East Sumba regencies, where hectares of rice fields have been lost to the drought.

There is concern food and water shortages will increase the number of poor in the area and the number of malnourished toddlers.

This year's rainy season is expected to end sometime between April and May, at which time the dry season will begin.

Over the last several years, many parts of the country have experienced severe droughts during the dry season, a situation some observers blame on climate change.

In the last three years parts of Sumatra, Java and Nusa Tenggara have suffered severe droughts, leading to food and water shortages.