"The number is still lower than last year," the minister said.Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Drought has affected 95,891 hectares of rice fields in various regions in Indonesia from January to August this year with 3,713 hectares failing to produce a harvest, Agriculture Minister Suswono said.
"The number is still lower than last year," the minister said after a coordination meeting on food at his office here on Monday.
He said besides drought, floods and insects had so far also been the causes of harvest failures.
He said during the past eight months in 2011, the number of rice fields affected by floods was recorded at 115,851 hectares and 16,471 hectares of them had failed to produce a harvest.
The number of rice fields affected by plant organisms in the period reached 577,015 hectares and 35,454 hectares of them had failed to produce harvest because of that.
In all total rice fields that failed to produce harvest from January to August 2011 reached 55,638 hectares.
"It is still below the average areas in the past five years recorded at around 100,000 hectares a year," the minister said.
He said the government had provided Rp374 billion to help farmers who had failed to harvest.
He said the government provided Rp2.6 million in aid for land processing per hectare and Rp1.1 million per hectare for fertilizers for the farmers.
"Totally Rp3.7 million per hectare in addition to free seeds," he said.
The Director General of Food Crops, Udhoro Kasih Anggoro, meanwhile said the government has distributed the funds for around 26,000 hectares. "The funds have been sent from the central government," he said.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
