Agnes S. Jayakarna, THE JAKARTA POST, SURABAYA | Fri, 08/14/2009 2:12 PM
The East Java chapter of the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) has forecast a rise is rice production in the province this year, despite a prolonged dry season in some parts of Indonesia.
The agency said a total of 62,120 hectares of paddy fields would be harvested this year, an increase from 38,830 hectares in 2008.
Head of the East Java BPS, Irlan Indocahyo, said this would translate into about 360 million kilograms of rice. He added that the peak season for rice harvesting would be March, 2009.
However, Irlan added the productivity per hectare of paddy field had declined by about one kilogram on average.
"But the quality of the grains in every harvest season this year will be good," he said.
According to the BPS, 335,160 tons of rice was harvested between January and April this year, an increased of 5.82 percent from the harvest in the same period last year.
Meanwhile, in the May-August period, 110,800 tons of rice, an increased of 3.17 percent compared to last year, was harvested.
The agency forecasts that the harvest of rice will decrease by about 81,430 tons, or 6.66 percent, compared to the same period last year, because of the longer dry season.
"The East Java administration should pay more attention to the agriculture sector during the coming months, when the long dry season will haunt this sector and cause a significant drop in the total volume of crops," Irlan said.
He added that the government had given those in the agriculture sector significant warning that this year's dry season would be longer, because of the impact of El Ni*o.
The BPS recorded that last year's rice harvest increased by more than 11 percent, to 10.5 tons of dried grains, from 2007.
Meanwhile, the East Java Legislative Council's agriculture commission agreed to allocate Rp 125 billion (US$US12.6 million) from the 2009 regional budget to the province's agriculture office.
According to commission member Ansori, the funds will be allocated to increase the welfare of farmers, develop the agribusiness sector and strengthen food stability program.
Ansori said the agriculture agency had proposed the administration and the council reduce its funding Rp 18 billion through the 2009 revised budget as the agency had cut some of its cost.
Despite the cuts, Ansori said the commission called the agency to increase its productivity and focus on expanding the growth of the agriculture sector and its market and to prevent the scarcity of fertilizer.
