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Residents leave drought-hit villages in Banjarnegara
Misery: A farmer from Banjarnegara, Central Java, looks at his paddy field, which has gone dry due to drought
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Misery: A farmer from Banjarnegara, Central Java, looks at his paddy field, which has gone dry due to drought. (Antara) (Antara)
Misery: A farmer from Banjarnegara, Central Java, looks at his paddy field, which has gone dry due to drought. (Antara)
Hundreds of residents from several villages in Banjarnegara regency, Central Java, have abandoned their villages due to their livelihoods having been lost to drought.
Village officials said that many villagers from across Kalibening district, mainly from Majatengah, Kaligombang and Sembawa villages, had moved to provinces outside Java.
'Most of them moved to Kalimantan to work on palm-oil plantations. Many of them took their families as it would have been difficult for them to provide for their basic needs [remotely],' Sembawa village head Slamet told journalists on Tuesday.
Slamet said the majority of Sembawa villagers were farmers who heavily depended on their farms. Many of them have now left their farm land, which have gone dry after several months of drought. 'Economic difficulties drove them from their homes. There are only children and the elderly currently staying in the villages,' said Slamet, adding that the villagers had left to earn the capital needed to cultivate their land from scratch again.
Tukiran, 45, a Sembawa villager, said that since the beginning of September many farmers had begun to leave their farm land. 'The paddy fields went dry while corn fields and salak [snake fruit] plants were destroyed by wild boars. [...] They then decided to temporarily leave their home areas to make their way in life,' said Tukiran. He added that farmers also lost their livestock to the drought as all the grasses needed to feed animals had gone dry.
Similarly, Daryono, 37, a Majatengah villager, said the drought afflicting Banjarnegara had brought misery to villagers in the regency. Many residents, who heavily relied on palawija, or crops planted as second crops during dry season, such as corn and cassava, became desperate after combination of the drought and wild-boar attacks.
Daryono said many wild boars had attacked farmers' plants due to the depletion of their usual food sources. 'Only rubber farmers are still holding out in Majatengah. The others have moved to big cities,' he said.
Banjarnegara is one of 35 regencies and municipalities in Central Java. It is home to around 900,000 people and 70 percent of those live in villages with food-crop farming as their main livelihood.
Banjarnegara borders with Wonosobo regency to the east and Banyumas regency to the west. Salak is a prime commodity of Banjarnegara, one of the poorest regencies in Central Java, and its growth depends on rainfall. (ebf)(+)
