Impacts Of El Nino Still Manageable: Agriculture Minister

Jakarta (Antara Bali) -- The drought triggered by the El Nino phenomenon is still manageable and will not affect national food resilience, Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman said here on Thursday.

"It (the impact of El Nino) has not affected (food resilience) yet. We still harvests till August. However, we need to anticipate its impacts between September and October," he stated after attending a limited cabinet meeting at the Presidential Office, to discuss anticipatory measures against the effects of El Nino on the country's food resilience.

Sulaiman affirmed that he had taken anticipatory measures against the impacts of El Nino since early 2015. These include installing as many as 21,000 water pumps, developing water reservoirs and digging shallow wells in various regions to prevent drought.

"It was anticipated early in January. Since then, we built tertiary irrigation systems, which now cover 1.3 million hectares of land," he pointed out.

He added that these measures were taken because Indonesia is categorized as a drought-prone country.

"Every year, 200 thousand hectares of fields are hit by drought. It did not happen just this year. El Nino happens every year," he stated.

Some of the regions affected by drought are Indramayu and Cirebon in West Java; Demak and Pati in Central Java; Bojonegoro in East Java; and Timur Tengah Selatan in East Nusa Tenggara.

Moreover, Sulaiman noted that drought occurred every year. But the preventive steps taken this year saved 100 thousand hectares of fields.

He is still optimistic that rice production in 2015 will meet the target of 75.5 million tons, while rice stock at present is some 1.5 million tons.

"It is still at a safe level now. Our stock is 1.5 million tons," he said.

In addition, during the meeting, President Joko Widodo asked the agriculture minister for a report on the impacts of the El Nino phenomenon in several regions.

"I asked for a report on the crop failures caused by the drought," the president said while leading the meeting.

However, the head of state is confident that the drought will not affect national food resilience because some regions have reported that they will conduct grand harvests in September.

"Last week, when I visited East Java, the governor reported that El Nino will not have serious impacts on the region and that there will be a grand harvest in September," he noted.

President Joko Widodo stated that during a recent visit to South Sulawesi, the governor had reported that the region will also have a grand harvest in September.

 "This is what I know. Perhaps the minister can give me a report on the situation in other regions," he remarked. (WDY)