NTT Prepares Water Pumps and Brigade System to Face Drought Threat

The Provincial Government of East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) is strengthening its preparedness to face the threat of drought this year through three main strategies: mitigation, adaptation, and anticipation. In addition to enhancing weather monitoring and water resource management, the Agriculture and Food Security Office has prepared dozens of water pumps and agricultural machinery (alsintan) that can be rapidly deployed to affected areas. Head of the NTT Agriculture and Food Security Office, Joaz Bily Oemboe Wanda, stated that climate change has made weather patterns increasingly unpredictable, forcing the government to accelerate anticipatory measures to prevent crop failure. “This year, the impact of drought has begun to be felt in several areas, especially West Sumba. Therefore, we continue to monitor weather developments with the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) and prepare response measures,” Joaz told Media Indonesia in Kupang on Tuesday. As a mitigation step, the agriculture office is regularly updating weather information, mapping water sources with the River Basin Agency (BWS), the Public Works and Spatial Planning Office, and district and city governments, and advising farmers not to force rice planting if water availability is insufficient. To accelerate field response, the Agriculture Office is implementing a brigade system for managing agricultural machinery. Under this system, water pumps and tractors become government stock that can be borrowed by farmer groups as needed and then returned to be shifted to other areas requiring assistance. Currently, the NTT Agriculture Office still has a stock of around 60 to 70 water pumps. This year, the government also received an additional 80 units from the Ministry of Agriculture. “Last year, 84 water pumps managed to save around 1,000 hectares of rice fields in Kupang Regency. If the need increases, we will propose additional units to the central government,” Joaz said. Besides water pumps, the government is also preparing tractors, rice seeds, corn, soybeans, and pesticides. For areas with potential water shortages, farmers are encouraged to plant more drought-resistant commodities such as soybeans and legumes. Head of the Food Crop and Horticulture Protection Unit of the NTT Agriculture and Plantation Office, Gebi Reni, said that monitoring of drought impacts is carried out by Plant Pest Control Officers (POPT) spread across all districts. In addition to monitoring pest and disease attacks, POPT officers are also tasked with observing drought and flood events. Currently, NTT has around 254 POPT officers, still far from the ideal requirement of one officer per sub-district. “We receive climate information from BMKG, which is then forwarded to POPT officers in the field to be conveyed to extension workers and farmers as an anticipatory measure,” Gebi said. To date, drought impact reports have only come from West Sumba Regency. The affected area reaches approximately 305 hectares of rice fields, with an estimated 29 hectares experiencing crop failure (puso) because one-month-old rice plants are no longer receiving a water supply. According to Gebi, the use of water pumps in some locations is not a solution because the water sources in the area have dried up. “If the water source is gone, water pumps cannot be utilised. Therefore, we direct farmers to switch to more drought-resistant crops that can still utilise residual soil moisture,” she said. However, no drought reports have been received from other districts so far. The Agriculture Office remains on high alert based on BMKG forecasts indicating that several areas in NTT are beginning to enter drought-prone categories. In addition to drought, the Agriculture Office is also anticipating an increase in pest attacks due to climate change. To support pest control, the government has prepared five pesticide warehouses spread across Timor Island, Sumba, Flores, and Manggarai Raya so that distribution can be carried out more quickly in the event of an attack. Gebi said one pest that continues to be monitored is locusts on Sumba Island. Control efforts carried out jointly with the Ministry of Agriculture and FAO from 2021 to 2025 have succeeded in suppressing the population. However, extreme weather conditions still have the potential to trigger the hatching of locust eggs in the soil, so supervision continues to be tightened. “Climate conditions greatly influence the development of locusts. Therefore, we continue to monitor so that attacks can be prevented early,” she said.