INDONESIA BRACES FOR DROUGHT AS EL NIÑO DEVELOPS by Fardah

   Jakarta, July 7, 2014 (Antara) - Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) has forecast that weak to moderate El Niño will likely begin to develop between July and August, and its impact will be apparent as of August.

          "Although El Niño in 2014 will not be as damaging as that in 1997, and will induce less dry drought than in 1997, the natural phenomenon will delay the start of the rainy season in 2014 and 2015, especially in the eastern and central parts of Indonesia," Head of BMKG Andi Eka Sakya said recently.

          During 1997-1998, Indonesia had experienced a prolonged drought induced by the strongest ever recorded El Niño, which triggered widespread fires.  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.

          Relatively weak El Niño will not have a devastating impact and mainly affect Indonesia's eastern region such as Papua, Maluku, West Nusa Tenggara, and East Nusa Tenggara.

         The impact of El Niño, which can be felt globally, is not the same in all areas. In Indonesia, El Niño usually causes drought that could affect agricultural production and trigger forest and peatland fires.

         The BMKG official, however, said there was no reason for concern or panic in facing El Niño. Farmers, who live in areas that will be affected by prolonged drought, are urged to take precautionary measures, to be economical in water usage, and grow crops that do not require much water.

         The agriculture ministry has prepared three scenarios to face El  Niño-induced drought during July-December 2014.

         "BMKG has forecast that El Niño might begin in July. Whenever it happens, we already have the standard operation procedure to maintain our agricultural production quantitatively," Deputy Minister of Agriculture Rusman Heriawan said in Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), recently.

          The first scenario is to make different planting calendars for each district. "We provide the calendar to farmers, so they will know when they should begin planting," he said.

          The second scenario is to urge farmers to plant fast-growing paddy varieties in anticipation of drought. "Choose fast-growing paddy variety, if possible, the one that could turn into ripe paddy after 90 days of planting, to anticipate water shortage. Do not plant paddy that takes four months to ripen," he said.

        The third scenario is to build small reservoirs near rice fields to accommodate rain water.

        The deputy minister said El Niño hits the country every year. Therefore, the government has continued to take precautionary measures to cope with the impact.

        "The most important issue is that the rice production should not be less than that in 2013," Rusman said.

        The government also has a contingency plan to import rice and to optimize the food production centers in the region in the case of harvest failure, he added.

         Meanwhile, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) is anticipating forest and plantation fires in nine provinces across Sumatra and Kalimantan when El Niño occurs this year.

         "Four provinces in Sumatra and five provinces in Kalimantan have the potential of forest and plantation fires," Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a spokesman of the agency, said recently.

          The nine provinces are North Sumatra, Riau, Jambi, South Sumatra, North Kalimantan, South Kalimantan, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, and East Kalimantan. "The nine provinces are often hit by forest fires. Therefore, monitoring activities will be prioritized there," he said.

         The agency has allocated Rp355 billion in funds to anticipate forest and plantation fires in the nine provinces this year. The funds will be used to pay rent for five helicopters and five planes to be deployed in the fire-hit provinces, among other things.

         Nine ministries will be involved in the handling of the fires, which were mostly deliberately set by illegal loggers and plantation companies, he said.

         Deputy of the Ministry of Environmental Affairs Arief Yuwono had recently stated that Indonesia was currently better prepared for land fires resulting from El Niño than it was in 1997.

         "We hope this will not be a repeat of 1997 because we are now better prepared, especially with regard to cooperation for provincial fire management," he said.

          In 1997, El Niño had caused drought, forest and land fires, a food crisis, and an energy crisis, which triggered economic and political crises.

          The forestry ministry has allocated funds amounting to Rp124.3 billion to deal with forest and plantation fires in 2014.

         "Although the BMKG has predicted that this year's drought will not be as damaging as in 1997, when Indonesia experienced the worst forest and plantation fires over the last 17 years. We have to remain observant and take preventive measures," the minister noted.

         In June 2014, Indonesian Vice President Boediono chaired a meeting on the prevention and mitigation of forest fires, which was attended by forestry minister Zulkifli Hasan, Indonesian Defense Forces Chief General Moeldoko, Attorney General Basrief Arief, Deputy National Police Chief Badrodin Haiti, Deputy Minister of Agriculture Rusman Heriawan, Chief of the Presidential Working Unit for Development Supervision and Control (UKP4) Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, and Chief of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) Syamsul Maarif.

         At the meeting, he warned of a larger risk of forest fires in the country due to a possible intense and longer drought caused by the El Niño phenomena.

         "We must reduce the risk of forest fires. I appeal to all levels of the government to agree on action plans for a more coordinated and effective effort to prevent them," he said.

         Boediono said every year, especially at the peak of the dry season, Indonesia was busy overcoming forest fires. Although the process was costly, uncontrolled forest fires could also tarnish Indonesia's image before its neighbors as the smoke from the fires affected those countries.

          He said although peak of the drought has not occurred, hot spots have already been detected in several locations.

          According to the UKP4 data, a total of 8,400 hotspots were detected in licensed forest concession areas in Riau province in the period January-June.

          In this connection, he emphasized the importance of taking law enforcement actions.

          "Law enforcement in the field is important for a deterrent effect," he said, adding the government will not like to be burdened with extinguishing forest fires every year and waste trillions of rupiah in the budget. ***3***
(f001/INE/H-YH)