Team set up to tackle cloud seeding ahead of dry season
Team set up to tackle cloud seeding ahead of dry season
JAKARTA (JP): In anticipation of the next dry season, expected to start in April, Minister of Agriculture Sjarifudin Baharsyah has formed a rain-making team.
The team, headed by Faisal Kasryno, chief of the research and development section of the agriculture ministry, will select target locations, set a cloud seeding timetable and assess the results.
Spokesman for the agriculture ministry Bambang Subiantoro told The Jakarta Post yesterday that some areas which had experienced low rainfall during the current wet season might suffer severe drought this year.
"The prolonged dry season in 1994 caused rice production to drop by 4 percent nationally, forcing the government to import quite a large quantity of rice," he said.
In addition, last year's lengthy dry season put the 1994 planting season behind schedule and, as a consequence, this year's dry season crops will be more vulnerable to drought, he said.
Provinces expected to suffer most during this year's dry season are Lampung, West Java, Central Java, Yogyakarta and East Java.
Climatic uncertainty has prompted the government to plan artificial rain in order to preserve Indonesia's self-sufficiency in rice production, which was first achieved in 1984, he said.
The plan is to use artificial rain to save rice crops at their critical growth stage. The rain will be aimed at major reservoirs which irrigate paddy fields and secondary crops, such as maize, peanuts, sorghum and soya beans.
The agriculture ministry estimates that the best time for cloud seeding is either the end of the current wet season, between April and May, or the end of the dry season, between October and November, depending on atmospheric conditions.
Bambang said cloud seeding was expensive and the government would ensure that the water was used as efficiently as possible for multiple purposes, including power generation.
"The artificial rain is also expected to save reserve forests and plants grown for cattle feed in the target catchment areas," he said. (pan)