Agriculture Minister Suswono said the drought in various provinces in
Indonesia had caused 23,000 hectares (ha) of 13 million ha of farmland to face
harvest failure.
He said the affected farmland
currently had reached 127,000 ha. “As much as 75 per cent of the area has
already faced harvest failure,” said Suswono.
He added that the government had
allocated 199 billion rupiah (US$20.78 million) to help farmers facing harvest
failure. The amount of funds could be used to revive up to 70,000 ha of
farmland facing harvest failure.
Suswono said the government would
provide 2.6 million rupiah for
cultivation and 1.1 million rupiah for fertiliser for a hectare of affected
farmland.
The assistance funds will be
immediately disbursed to farming communities when the agriculture offices at
the regency and mayoralty levels have verified the area of affected farmland.
“After the affected farmland has
been verified, we will send the data to the Agriculture Ministry which will
immediately transfer the cash assistance to the affected farming communities.
This is valid for all provinces in Indonesia,” said Suswono.
He expected farmers to grow side
crops, such as soybean and mung beans during the drought.
According to him, the current
drought is normal during seasonal change in Indonesia. “We hope by the end of
September there will be rain, so the grand planting season can begin in
October,” he said.
He added that eventually the
government would build more than 1,000 small artificial lakes to overcome the
drought.
“So, while it’s raining, water
can be retained and reserved for the drought,” said Suswono.
In the Bantul regency,
Yogyakarta, hundreds of hectares of red onion farms have experienced harvest
failure, causing billions of rupiah in losses.
The harvest failure is blamed on
the blorok fungus, which attacks onion leaves due to the long drought.
“The leaves have turned yellow
and as a result, the plants cannot bear fruit. We are certain that at least 100
hectares of our onion farms will face harvest failure,” said Sunar, 47, leader
of a farming community in Bulak Cetan, Sanden, Bantul.
Sunar, father of four, told The
Jakarta Post that farmers had suffered losses up to billions of rupiah due to
the harvest failure. “Normally, a hectare of crops can produce 20 tonnes.
Imagine the loss we suffer if a kilogramme is sold at 5,000 rupiah,” he said.
The blorok fungus is triggered by
high humidity due to the prolonged drought.
“The climate has totally changed.
The previous year, before the rainy season, it had rained once or twice. This
year, there was absolutely no rain, which caused the weather to become very
humid,” he said.
Another farmer, Agus Tiyanto,
said the fungus had spread rapidly. “My crops were still green three days ago,
but in just two days, all of them had turned yellow due to the fungus,” he
said.
Agus, who grows onions on a
5,000-metre plot, said he had suffered a loss of up to tens of millions of
rupiah due to the harvest failure.
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