Tuesday, June 23, 2015

GOVERNMENT URGES FARMERS TO PREPARE TO FACE EL NIÑO By Fardah

    Jakarta, June 23,2015  (Antara) -- The Indonesian government is gearing up to face the effects of the predicted weak to moderate El Niño, which could reduce precipitation by 40 to 80 percent.
         This natural phenomenon will affect the provinces of Sumatra, East Java, Bali, West and East Nusa Tenggara, and Papua in particular.
         The Indonesian Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) and the National Institute of Aeronautics and Space (LAPAN) have forecast that drought due to El Niño might occur from June to November this year and affect 18 provinces across the country.       
  "It means that drought caused by El Niño will coincide with the planting season in the dry season, which is from April to September. We need to implement particular measures to prevent the impacts of the El Niño heat wave on crops," Head of Research and Development of the Agriculture Ministry Moch Syakir said recently.
         The prediction about the occurrence of El Niño was also confirmed in June's El Niño Advisory issued by the U. S. Climate Prediction Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Weather Service.

       The traditional and equatorial Southern Oscillation Index were both negative, consistent with enhanced convection over the central and eastern equatorial Pacific and suppressed convection over Indonesia.  Collectively, these atmospheric and oceanic features reflect an ongoing and strengthening El Niño, the advisory said on June 11.
         "However, this prediction may vary in the months ahead as strength forecasts are the most challenging aspect of ENSO prediction.  A moderate, weak, or even no El Niño remains possible, though at increasingly lesser odds. There is a greater than 90 percent chance that El Niño will continue through fall in 2015 in the northern hemisphere and around an 85 percent chance it will last through the 2015-16 winter," it added.
        El Niño is a natural phenomenon characterized by markedly warmer water in the Pacific Ocean just off the coast of South America. El Niño can change the weather patterns and brings about drought in the West Pacific region, including Indonesia.
       El Niño is the Spanish term for "Christ Child" or "The Little Boy" since it had a propensity to show up around Christmas time. It has a cool sister that goes by the name of "La Niña," which translates to "The Little Girl" in Spanish.
        In the 1997-1998 period, Indonesia had experienced a prolonged drought induced by the strongest ever recorded El Niño, which had also triggered widespread forest fires especially in Kalimantan. 
   The greatest loss caused by forest and land fires in Indonesia occurred in 1997, when fires wiped out millions of hectares of forest and plantation areas and caused losses worth US$2.45 billion.
        Indonesia's Agriculture Minister Andi Amran Sulaiman claimed that this year, his ministry has anticipated a possible drought induced by El Niño that will affect more than 200 thousand hectares of land.
        The ministry has studied the matter for five to 10 years and is now ready to implement some measures, he affirmed.
       "To mitigate the impacts of El Niño, I have set up a special team as a weak El Nino is forecast to hit Indonesia, a moderate El Niño is forecast to hit Australia, while a strong one will hit the United States," the minister noted recently.
        "I have gathered all agricultural experts and those competent in tackling the impacts of El Niño," Sulaiman added.
          With these predictions, the national paddy production is expected to not be affected by El Niño this year.    
     Moreover, the Ministry of Agriculture has equipped drought-hit regions with water pumps.
          Sulaiman pointed out that the ministry will distribute 20 thousand water pumps in drought-affected regions.
           Across Indonesia, 96 districts covering a total area of 198 thousand hectares have been identified as prone to drought.
           The ministry recently sent a team to Indramayu, West Java, to distribute water pumps to local communities facing a shortage of clean water.
           In addition, Vice President M. Jusuf Kalla has expressed optimism that the government will not need to import food commodities to face the impacts of El Niño.
           "Effects of the El Niño phenomenon are expected to be moderate. If we prepare well, we will not have to import food," Kalla stated while officiating the Environment and Forestry Week at the Jakarta Convention Center recently.
           In East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), one of the provinces prone to the impacts of El Niño, farmers have been urged to brace themselves for a drought induced by the heat wave.             
      "There is no need to panic. Instead, they should gear up for the possibility by preparing land to plant crops that can be harvested in a short period of time," Head of the NTT Agricultural and Plantation Office Yohanes Tay Ruba stated in Kupang on June 22.
          The people of NTT are apprehensive about the threat of the El Niño weather phenomenon, which has left the province in disastrous conditions in its wake nearly every year.
          Ruba further noted that 17 of the 22 districts in NTT were always hit by the heat waves caused by El Niño every year.
          The 17 districts are Ende, Lembata, Alor, Sumba Timur, Sumba Tengah, Kupang, Nagekeo, Flores Timur, Sabu Raijua, Sumba Barat, Sumba Barat Daya, Sikka, Timor Tengah Utara (TTU), Timor Tengah Selatan (TTS), Belu, Malaka, and Sikka.
          Only five districts---Ngada, Manggarai Barat, Manggarai, Manggarai Timur, and Kota Kupang---escape the drought, he added.
        He urged local farmers to plant the INPARI 19 variety of paddy as it can be harvested in 94 days.
        Farmers were urged to use rainwater harvesting to collect water, as well.
        Ruba also pointed out that paddy and corn were most likely to be affected by El Niño.
         Another way to cope with the weather phenomenon is the implementation of the labor-intensive program of re-vegetation to create job opportunities and to prevent the destruction of forests, he remarked.
         "There are number of labor-intensive projects in the agricultural and plantation sector, such as maintenance of land, building of terraces, replanting, expansion of plantations, etc." he stated.
         In the forestry sector, labor-intensive projects include reforestation, re-greening and control of forest fires, he added.
         In the environment sector, there are projects to control of flooding, landslides and fires. 
    The labor-intensive projects are implemented primarily to provide employment to those who lose their jobs as a result of the global crisis and to other unemployed people.
         Furthermore, Ruba warned that the El Niño threat will continue every year if no concrete preventive measures such as reforestation were taken.
         To forestall the effects of a long drought, district administrations have built water reservoirs to hold as much rainwater as possible near rice fields.
         In addition, pumps have been made available to siphon water from rivers to irrigate rice fields.
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(T.F001/A/BESSR/Suharto) 23-06-2015 22:25
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