Pelaihari, South Kalimantan (ANTARA) - Head of the Tanah Laut Food Crops, Horticulture, and Plantation Office (Distanhorbun) M Faried Widyatmoko informed that around 1,000 hectares of agricultural land in the district are experiencing drought.
"Currently there are around 1,000 hectares of farmers' land in several sub-districts experiencing drought due to hot season," said Faried in Pelaihari, Tuesday.
If there is no rain in the next two weeks, he is worried that the harvest will fail.
"To overcome this problem, we hope farmers to use water from retention basins (embung) or river water near their land," he pointed out.
Earlier this month, Minister of Agriculture Syahrul Yasin Limpo handed out four tons of new superior rice seed varieties that can adapt to drought as part of the efforts to anticipate El Niño-induced drought.
“Indonesia will be confronted with drought because of El Niño,” he noted in a statement at the XVI Indonesian Farmers and Fishers National Week (Penas Tani) in Padang.
These superior varieties, Inpago 9, Inpago 12, Inpago 13 Foriz, Cakrabuana, and Inpari 42, are resilient to the lack of water availability, have a long age, and can produce above eight tons per hectare of rice.
Meanwhile, Distanhorbun has prepared 135 units of water pumps to be lent for free to farmers.
"Of the 135 water pumps, we have lent 80 percent to farmers," Faried said.
"Currently we have recorded land with severe drought, heavy enough, moderate, light, and unaffected," he expounded.
Based on BMKG forecasts, hot weather will peak in September 2023.
"even though the BMKG predicts the peak of hot weather will occur in September 2023, two sub-district have just planted rice," he said.
Meanwhile, El Nino has been predicted to occur in the second half of 2023 and is expected to peak in August.
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