Indonesia upbeat on rice output despite floods

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Tự Hào Gentraco

Sat, 19/05/2012 - 10:09 am.

Indonesia upbeat on rice output despite floods

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia can still achieve its target of 60-61 million tonnes of unmilled rice this year, despite heavy flooding in the country's main rice-growing areas, Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono said on Monday. Torrential rains in recent weeks have flooded some parts of the country, with Java island the worst hit area. Floods and landslides on Java island, which accounts for more than half of Indonesia's rice production, have killed more than 100 people and displaced 60,000 in the past two weeks.

Floods have destroyed 43,000 hectares of rice fields across the country, but this represents less than 1 percent of the total planted rice areas of 12.24 million ha, Apriyantono was quoted by Reuters as saying.

"It won't disrupt our food security," Apriyantono said, adding that production would only be hit if more than 200,000 ha of rice fields are destroyed by floods.

He said the government would provide new rice seeds for farmers in flood-hit areas so that they can replant their crops once the water has receded.

Indonesia produced an estimated 57.05 million tonnes of unmilled rice in 2007, according to the state statistics agency, below its target of 58.18 million tonnes of unmilled rice.

Indonesia has been struggling to increase rice production, the main staple for its population of 226 million people, because of a lack of good quality seeds, intense competition for land, and a shortage of fertiliser. (*)