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The government is preparing for severe food shortages as several provinces brace for drought resulting from the late arrival of the rainy season.

Nurhayati, the head of the climate center at the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), said 131 zones would enter the rainy season in October and another 121 in November.

At the same time, she said, nine climate zones in Sulawesi and Maluku would be starting to enter the dry season.

She said that among the zones entering the dry season were Luwuk, Bantaeng and three other areas in South Sulawesi; Palu in Central Sulawesi; Bolang Mongondow in North Sulawesi; and Seram and Buru islands in Maluku. The rainy season, she said, was expected to reach those areas between March and May next year.

It remains unclear when the rainy season will arrive in another 65 zones.

An official in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) said the extended dry season in some parts of the region had caused a serious food crisis affecting a wide swath of residents, particularly in West Timor, East Sumba, East Flores and on Lembata Island.

The areas of south-central Timor, northeastern Timor and Belu district are among the affected areas in West Timor.

Nico Bala Nuhan, from the province’s Food Resilience Agency, said a total of 95,937 residents in 21 districts and cities in these areas were now facing severe food shortages as a result of climate change-induced drought.

“There are indeed people in NTT who are facing a food crisis, but not one million people as has been reported by several media [outlets],” he said.

A number of news outlets have reported that famine and serious malnutrition have affected more than a million people in the province.

Although the current conditions in the drought-hit areas have not yet caused famine and malnutrition, Nico said that if the food crisis was not quickly addressed, disaster could strike.

He said his agency had taken steps to lessen the impact of the drought by providing food relief assistance and distributing seeds and seedlings, fertilizer and water pumps.

Long-term solutions, he said, should include upgrading the irrigation infrastructure in the affected regions to make them less susceptible to the vagaries of the climate and the wet and dry seasons.

In Bengkulu, on Sumatra Island, the provincial legislative council is demanding local administrations prepare adequate rice stocks to cope with the extended dry season that has decimated the province’s food supply.

“The government must prepare for food shortages because the dry season is expected to drag on and will impact farmers’ harvests,” said Lukman, who heads the council’s commission on economy and finance.

Besides preparing an adequate stockpile of rice, the government should also encourage farmers to plant crops that are more resistant to water shortages, such as yams and corn.

“Those farmers who have a harvest this season should also stockpile rice for their families and only sell the surplus,” Lukman said.

The Bengkulu chapter of the State Logistics Agency (Bulog), which helps ensure food stocks, said a shipment of 5,000 tons of rice would supplement a stock of 9,200 tons it had in its warehouses.  


Antara & JG