[Kabar-indonesia] 16% of RI Crops May Be Threatened by Extended Dry Season

[JoyoNews at aol.com]

Indonesia forecasts longer dry season 

JAKARTA, July 14 (Bloomberg): Indonesia expects an extended dry season 
this year in parts of the world's largest archipelago that may threaten 16 
percent 
of crops solely dependent on rains.

About a tenth of the total land area in parts of Java and Nusa Tengara may 
see 
the dry season until November instead of the normal September, said Ahamd 
Zakir, spokesman of Indonesia's Meteorology and Geophysics Agency. 
Indonesia's monsoon season isfrom October to March.

Delayed rains may affect crops such as rice and lower the purchasing power of 
farmers as President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's government tries to boost 
economic growth, which the World Bank says may slow for the first time since 
2001. There areabout 20 million rice farmers in Indonesia.

"We are watching out for Java and Nusa Tenggara," Zakir said Friday, without 
elaborating.

Still, the area affected by the lack of rains is"insignificant," said Sutarto 
Alimoeso, director general of food crops at the agriculture ministry. Two 
million hectares of the 12 million hectares of rice farms in the nation totally 
depend onrainfall, Sutarto said.

Three-fifths of Indonesia's rice fields are in Java, he said. About 59,000 
hectares 
of rice fields were affected by drought in Indonesia, mostly in Java, from 
January through June, while another 50,000 face such a risk this year, Sutarto 
said.

"Rice production for this year is safe that it can meet domestic demands," 
Sutarto said in an interview.

The drought is not expected to hit Sumatra or the Indonesian part of Borneo 
Island, where farmers grow oil palm trees. Indonesia is the world's 
second-largest palm oil producer.

Indonesia extended a ban on rice imports by five months to the end of the 
year because the nation has had a good harvest. Indonesia's unhusked rice output 
may reach 54.75 million metric tons in 2006, compared with 54.15 million tons 
last year. 

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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