EL NINO TO AFFECT E JAVA'S AGRICULTURE MODERATELY

Surabaya, E Java, July 31 (ANTARA) - The El Nino phenomenon will not extremely affect agricultural productivity in East Java which is expected to drop by only about 0.29 percent, an agricultural official said.

Chief of the East Java Agricultural office's infrastructure and facility affairs unit, Kusdiriyanto, said rainfall between August and September this year was predicted to be normal.

He said the moderate impact of El Nino as predicted by the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) would only occur in the western part of Indonesia.

Therefore, he said, farmers in East Java should now start planting secondary crops. "We suggest that farmers not plant rice in the August - October period," he added.

He said drought had taken place in East Java not because of El Nino but because of hydrological conditions in a number of rice fields.

"This is because springs in a number of agricultural lands have been damaged. A number of springs in upstream areas have disappeared. Therefore, we will do our best to carry out greening programs," he added.

Kursdiriyanto said this year's El Nono would have the same impact as in 2003 and 1997. In 2003, drought affected 27,687 hectares of land and caused 5,373 hectares of rice fields to fail to produce harvestable yields.

"The losses incurred by the drought was estimated at Rp95.1 billion or about 0.95 percent of the province's total production," he said.

Experts have predicted that El Nino, a climate phenomenon with a significant influence on global weather, ocean conditions and marine fisheries, will begin hitting the Asian region, including Indonesia, later this year and last until 2010.

Indonesia which was severely affected by the climate phenomenon in 1997 has predicted that it will not have an extreme impact on or cause protracted drought this time.

"The temperature in Indonesia will relatively be moderate and there will be no protracted drought. If El Nino does happen we basically are now ready to do what is necessary to mitigate it," Director for Environment Affairs of the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) Edi Effendi said.*