Prolonged dry season won't affect rice output target: Govt
Prolonged dry season won't affect rice output target: Govt
Moch. N. Kurniawan and Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post,
Jakarta
The current prolonged dry season would not have a serious impact
on this year's rice production target, the Ministry of
Agriculture said on Friday.
Ministry food production management director M. Jafar Hafsah
said that as of August rice output had reached between 80 to 90
percent of this year's target of 48.65 million tons.
"The extended dry season will not disrupt rice output this
year," he told The Jakarta Post.
"I'm optimistic we can still produce another 10 to 20 percent
this year," he added.
The Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) predicted on
Thursday that half of Indonesia would have a prolonged dry season
this year by up to one month.
Some of the rice-producing areas expected to be hit by the
protracted dry season are: Sukabumi, Subang, Cianjur, Garut,
Tasikmalaya, Majalengka (West Java), most parts of Central Java,
southern parts of East Java, central parts of North Sumatra,
South Lampung, western parts of North Lampung and southeast Aceh.
According to the agency, rain in the affected areas may only
start to fall in October, which will cause at least a one-month
delay in rice harvesting and planting.
But there are fears that the delay will cause serious
difficulties to the already financially-suffering farmers.
Because of the prolonged dry season, farmers can only start
planting rice in November (assuming rains do start in October)
and harvest it in January. Normally, farmers start harvesting in
December.
The problem is that farmers will need money in December, when
many celebrate the Muslim Ramadhan, Christmas and New Year.
Agriculture analyst Bayu Krisnamurti of the Center for
Development Studies at the Bogor Agriculture University said that
the price of unhusked rice usually dropped in January, but at the
same time the farmers were facing the risk of higher prices for
seeds and other production needs.
The price of unhusked rice increases in the run up to the
festivities because of increased demand, but will go down after
the festivities.
Rice is the staple food of Indonesia's more than 200 million
people.
Meanwhile, Ibrahim Warsinta, a farmer from Karanganyar village
in Cirebon, West Java, told the Post that planting crops in
November, instead of the normal September period, would make the
crops prone to diseases, which in turn would seriously affect
next year's rice output.
"This has been our experience," he said.
He said that to prevent such problems, the government must
provide farmers with high quality seeds.