Minister Orders Ministry Officials To Save Crops Amid Drought

Jakarta (Antara Bali) - Agriculture Minister Andi Amran Sulaiman has ordered his staff to take actions to save newly planted paddy plantations from the threat of drought.

"The acreage of rice fields estimated to be affected by drought and pests has reached 100,000 hectares," the minister said, when installing echelon II officials at his ministry here on Friday.

Therefore, he added, all rank and file staff members of the agriculture ministry must conduct field checks to monitor and safeguard plantations beginning on Saturday, Aug 8.

He also said that standing crops must be protected. The minister recalled, however, that the impact of drought that had been ongoing over the past two months was still within normal limits.

Sulaiman said that usually droughts take place in September or October, but this year it began in August in several regions.

Therefore, the minister said, all rice plants in Sumatra, West Java, Central Java, East Java, and other regions must be safeguarded.

In the meantime, when referring to efforts to create food self-sufficiency in strategic commodities such as rice, maize, soybean, chili, shallot, sugar and meat, the minister said there had been indications of success in the program.

This success has been reflected in the stable food stocks that are available, resulting in Indonesia not needing to import. Further, constraints of distribution and problems caused by traders could be overcome, he noted.

However, he acknowledged that prices of a number of commodities were on the rise due to distribution disturbances from the farms to the markets. These price increases were not caused by shortages of production. (WDY)