Rainy season likely to come late for most of Java: Karjoto

Rainy season likely to come late for most of Java: Karjoto

JAKARTA (JP): The weathermen have more bad news for farmers,
the government and the people of Java and eastern Indonesia who
are experiencing water shortages.

The official weather agency predicts that the rainy season is
coming late this year for many parts of Indonesia, and for some
it won't even start until December. When it does finally come,
the rainfall in some areas is predicted to be below normal.

The Meteorology and Geophysics Agency presented its latest
weather predictions for the next six months yesterday and the
outlook does not look good.

The agency's chief Karjoto told a press conference yesterday
that half the country would enter the rainy season at a later
date than usual.

Based on weather observations at 93 stations across Indonesia,
he said, 17 percent of the areas will suffer the most from
delayed rainfall.

The most affected regions include the eastern part of Kuningan
and Cirebon, regarded as Indonesia's main "rice bowl" areas, the
northern coasts of Central and East Java and Banyuwangi in the
easternmost part of Java.

Beyond Java, the outlook is also grim. The rainy season will
also be delayed in Madura Island, the western coast of Sumbawa
Island, East Sumba and Flores, the Solor and Alor Islands, the
northern part of East Timor, parts of South Sulawesi, the
southeastern part of the Maluku Islands and southern Merauke.

Rice bowls

Regions around the northern coast of West Java, including
Karawang, Subang, Sumedang, which are among the country's "rice-
bowls," are expected to start getting rain in mid-November.

Karjoto said the central regions of North Sumatra and most of
West and Central Java, which only make up one percent of the
total observed areas, would be the areas to get the first showers
of rainfall, predicted for some time between the beginning and
the middle of this month.

The agency predicts that in 33 percent of the observed
regions, the level of rainfall will drop to below normal.

These include the northern coasts of West and Central Java,
Jakarta and the western part of East Java's southern coast.

In fifty-five percent of the regions, which include most of
West and East Java, the central and eastern parts of Central
Java, South Sumatra and Bali, rainfall is expected to be around
the normal level.

In 12 percent of the regions, including the northern part of
Bandung, the central parts of West and Central Java, Lampung and
Lombok Islands, rainfall levels are predicted to rise above
normal.

Karjoto explained that until the end of August, the sea
surface temperature of most of Indonesia's waters were below
normal. This condition, he said, has been going on over the last
three to four months, causing little or no rain at all across the
country.

An evaluation of the dry season showed that in 96 percent of
the country's regions, dry season rainfalls have dropped to below
normal and only four percent are at a normal level, he said.

The long drought, or dry season, which started in late March,
has caused some 110,000 hectares of paddy fields on Java to fail,
causing the total national rice output to drop by four percent.

Indonesia, whose population relies heavily on rice as a main
source of nutrition, has some 3.5 billion hectares of irrigated
land in 10 provinces known as the nation's "rice bowls."

In July, vegetable prices also rose by seven to 22 percent at
Jakarta's Kramat Jati wholesale market, which receives supplies
from West Java plantations.

The government through the National Logistics Agency (Bulog)
took the initiative to conduct a special market operation which
was aimed at stabilizing soaring rice prices.

The Ministry of Public Works also carried out cloud-seeding
and operated "balloon dams" to provide irrigation to paddy
fields.

In a further step to overcome rice shortage problems,
Indonesia is asking payment from Vietnam and the Philippines,
both of whom received rice loans from Indonesia in the past.

Indonesia, which used to be the largest rice importer in the
world, became self-sufficient in rice in 1984. (pwn)