Riau farmers suffer floods, harvest failures

Farmers in Kundur, Riau Islands province say their harvests failed after flood waters inundated their fields.

Jali, a farmer in Tanjungsurup, Karimun regency, said his fields had been flooded in water up to 1 meter deep, damaging about 5,000 chili plants.

“It is a real disaster for me. It was supposed to be harvest time,” Jali said Monday as quoted by Antara. 

He said he had harvested a small portion of his chilies before rains drenched the area for the past three days.

“The chili I harvested was worth only Rp 2.5 million. The rest, which could not be harvested, was worth Rp 60 million," he said.

Floods also affected fish farmers. Auzar, owner of a lele (catfish) pond, said his fish were washed away in the water that inundated the pond.

“It was bad luck. I would have harvested next month, earning tens of millions of rupiah,” he said. 

Raja Zuriantiaz, a resident of Kundur, said rubber farmers had also suffered harvest failures as floodwaters inundated the rubber tree plantations.

Several schools were also temporarily closed because of the floods, while students in several other schools continued to attend classes, in some cases removing their shoes because water had inundated parts of their schools.