RI food production 'stable' despite floods in Sumatra

RI food production 'stable' despite floods in Sumatra

BANGKOK (AP): Despite severe floods on the island of Sumatra recently, food production in Indonesia has stabilized, the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture organization said Wednesday.

Milled rice production in 2000 is likely to be "a favorable" 33 million tons, 3 percent above last year and about 4 percent above the five-year average, a report by the FAO's Asia-Pacific regional office in Bangkok said.

It attributed the higher production to a long wet season and only minor incidences of pests and disease.

Because of higher production, Indonesia will import less this rice year, around 2.2 million tons, a sharp drop from the record 6 million tons imported in 1998-99, the FAO said.

However, it warned, that "concerns remain for food security in parts of the country affected by civil unrest, which includes Aceh in the northwestern tip of Sumatra which was also seriously affected by the recent floods."

The report said the rice production was also affected by the worst torrential rains in decades over the past week that damaged rice fields and left almost 100 people dead in northern and western Sumatra.

Sumatra is the second largest rice producer in Indonesia after Java.

Sumatra would normally produce 20-25 percent of Indonesia's annual output, with almost 45 percent of this coming from the flood-hit northern and western provinces, the FAO said.

The overall recovery in food production comes after the Asian economic crisis in 1997/1998 and El Nino related weather disturbances, which "eroded the livelihood of large sections of the population, particularly in urban areas, increasing poverty levels and vulnerability to food insecurity," it said.