BANDUNG: Floods and landslides have damaged more than 13,000 hectares of rice paddies in West Java, forcing the provincial ad-ministration to ask the Agriculture Ministry to send it 320 tons of rice seedling from its national reserve to be distributed for free to prevent possible financial loss.

Helmi Anwar, head of the West Java Agriculture Agency, said a possible harvest failure of more than 75,000 tons of rice was feared, on the assumption that a hectare of paddies yielded 5.8 tons of rice.

He added the worst hit area was Karawang, a key rice production center. He also said the total amount of paddies inundated by floods topped 30,000 hectares, but pointed out more than half of them could be recovered.

Helmi said the figure could increase, with the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency forecasting more rains to come until March. - JP