Sebastien Blanc, Jakarta – The United Nations started distributing rice seeds and farm tools Friday in Indonesia's tsunami-hit Aceh province, hoping to restart agriculture amid the salty sludge that now covers 37,500 hectares.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) began handing out 174 tonnes (tons) of rice seed, 1,305 tonnes of fertilizer and 545 hand tractors, FAO Aceh coordinator Jean-Jacques Franc de Ferriere told AFP.
This would help 8,700 families start to plough and plant an initial 5,000 hectares of those farmlands not made infertile by seawater, he said.
Almost five months after the disaster, which left more than 165,000 Indonesians dead or missing, most of Aceh's 595,305 internally displaced people still rely on aid from the UN's World Food Programme.
Experts of the Rome-based FAO now have high hopes of bringing the agriculture sector back to life despite what de Ferriere called a "very substantial change in the environment" in the north of Sumatra.
Large areas where the soil has been too badly damaged for planting crops will be turned into cattle-rearing areas, he said.
FAO specialists have categorised the formerly arable land according to the level of contamination with salty sand, clay and mud.
Around 2,900 hectares are still covered with brackish waters and are considered "lost forever", said de Ferriere. "Severely damaged" tracts considered unfarmable make up 17,500 hectares, he said. "We are going to find another use for them," he said. "We will be able to plant protective plants like mangroves or coconut trees in order to create a coastal forest."
Before the disaster, 80 per cent of Aceh's working population were farmers and the province was a net rice exporter.
But the once lush rice paddies took a direct hit from the December 26 killer waves, which also killed more than 47,800 head of cattle, 34,600 water buffalo, 61,800 goats and almost 35,000 sheep, the Rome-based agency has said.
The salt water, mixed with man-made toxins near cities, also polluted freshwater aquifers and destroyed mangroves, coral reefs and seagrass fields vital to the marine life that is a major food source for coastal communities.
On some of the "severely damaged" grounds, more salt-resistant natural grass has grown back, making it suitable for cattle-ranching. "Animals have no difficulties finding food among the debris, and their trampling is good for the soil," de Ferriere said.
Around 10,000 hectares of land are "moderately damaged", with a thinner salt crust, which experts hope will be washed away by rain or sufficiently diluted in the soil once the fields are plowed.
"In the less affected areas, salinity has dropped because of the rains," said FAO agronomist Alfizar, who like many Indonesians uses only one name. "It is now possible to grow beans, tomatoes and peppers."