Jakarta – Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Yusuf Kalla said on Wednesday that the government had distributed 1,800 tons of relief rice to 250,000 farmers in Java, which is suffering from harvest failure due to the long drought.

"I have received reports about it from 18 district heads," Kalla said shortly before presiding over a meeting to evaluate the compensation for the reduction in fuel oil subsidy.

He said that the relief is expected to meet the farmers' needs for two weeks. In September and October, another 20,000 tons of relief rice will be distributed, he noted.

He said the government was also planning to provide in September some 140 water tanker trucks, 33 of which will go to East Java, 48 to Central Java, 7 to Yogyakarta, 40 to West Java and 12 to Banten.

Kalla said to help the farmers further, the government would also launch labor-intensive projects in drought-stricken provinces, in which each of the farmers would be paid Rp 15,000 (about US$2) per day to repair his own irrigation ditches.