Farmers thresh rice after the harvest in Laladon village, Bogor regency, West Java, on October 11 (Photo: ANTARA) Jakarta (VNA) - Indonesia’s National Food Agency (Bapanas) is expecting a two-month delay in next year’s harvest due to a prolonged drought nationwide caused by El Nino.
Bapanas head Arief Prasetyo Adi said the first rice harvest will likely to occur in May instead of March or April as usual. This delay could lead to a rise in rice prices as supplies will be strained in the first quarter of next year.
This year, the government has coordinated with the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) to deploy artificial rains to serve agricultural production. Despite experiencing a delay, they managed to create rain in November, Arief said.
He said that Bapanas has started preparing for the first planting season of next year since September and hoped for continued support from state-owned fertiliser holding firm PT Pupuk Indonesia in securing adequate fertiliser supplies throughout the planting period.
Bapanas has instructed the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) to ensure that rice reserves remain above 1 million tonnes to meet domestic demand. Bulog currently has 1.4 million tonnes of rice in stock and has been authorised to import 1.5 million tonnes.
The government will also launch a programme to stabilise domestic rice market in an effort to minimise the need for future rice imports from other countries like Thailand./.
