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AKARTA: The nation’s rice production remains stable despite a recent infestation of the brown planthopper (Nilaparvata lugens), a senior official says.

Udoro Kasih Anggoro, the Agriculture Ministry’s food security director, said Tuesday that the planthopper attack had not significantly affected rice production nationally.

He said the scourge had affected 191,237 hectares of paddy fields in several agricultural areas, but only 4,100 hectares or 2 percent of the total rice fields had dried up.

The dried fields are only 0.06 percent of the total paddy fields in the nation.

“It was just a mild attack,” he said, disputing a recent report saying that the scourge had decreased the country’s rice production by 30 percent this year.

He said the attack had severely impacted rice production in the affected areas. However, it had not significantly affected the nation’s total rice production.

“In the midst of relatively wet weather, we can still produce on average 50.52 quintals of rice per hectare. That’s quite good,” he said.

He said the government was preparing several measures to better tackle the extreme weather that had severely affected farmers in several regions.

“We are committed to providing assistance to farmers who had harvest failures,” he said, without providing any details on what kind of assistance would be provided. — JP