Drought Hits And damages Food crops In E. Nusatenggara

Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, Sept 8 (Antara) - The regional natural disaster mitigation agency (BPBD) of East Nusa Tenggara reported drought hit and damaged food crops in 16 of 22 regencies in the province. The 16 regencies are feared to suffer badly as a result of the drought brought on by the weather phenomenon El Nino, head of the BPBD Tini Thadeus said here on Monday. "The 16 regencies is feared to suffer serious food shortage and six other regencies with minor damage," Tini said. The 16 regencies include Kupang, Timor Tengah Selatan, Timor Tengah Utara, Belu, Malaka, Sumba Timur, Sumba Barat, Sumba Tengah and Sumba Barat Daya, Ende, Sikka, Flores Timur, Lembata and Alor. The six regencies suffering minor impact of the drought are Kota Kupang, Ngada, Nagekeo, Manggarai Timur, Manggarai and Manggarai Barat. Shortage in food supply would result in soaring prices of food products in those district, Tini said. The provincial administration of East Nusa Tenggara already took some precautionary steps such as by providing water tanks, and help provide irrigation for farm production centers in the province. The district administrations have been ordered to prepare budget with provision of fund to cope with the drought in their respective areas. "Budget funds must be provided to cope with the impact of El Nino," Tini said. The provincial administration has also asked for natural disaster budget from the central government to jointly handle the impact of the drought . Head of the food security agency (BKP2) of East Nusa Tenggara Hadji Husen said food is still sufficiently available in the province for the next four months. There are 205,520 tons of rice in stocks as against monthly requirement of 46,709 tons , Husen said. "Corn stocks are even sufficient for a year," he said, adding there are 104,419 tons of corn in stock as against monthly requirement of 8,222 tons. Stocks are also sufficient for tuber totaling 37,784 tons with monthly requirement of 8,214 tons, he said. Similarly stock of soybean is more than sufficient at 570 tons with monthly requirement averaging 713 tons, she added. Meanwhile, drought was also reported hitting the regency of Langkat in North Sumatra. Six sub-districts in the regency are badly hit by drought damaging food crop. Around 1,754 hectares of rice fields in the regency are feared to suffer harvest failure after long drought. The hardest hit was the sub-district Babalan where 1,274 hectares of rice fields were damaged. Other sub-districts suffering from drought include Secanggang,Pangkalan Susu, Brandan Barat, Binjai, and Sei Lepan.