Arya Dipa and Nana Rukmana, Bandung/Cirebon – Fifty-two percent of the nation's network of irrigation systems needs repair, a top agriculture official says. The nation's plans for rice self-sufficiency stand in the balance.
Damage to the network from old age, sedimentation and natural disasters was preventing paddy fields from receiving adequate water supplies, Haryono, the Agriculture Ministry's research and development chief, said in Bandung, West Java, on Thursday.
Repairs needed to be made as soon as possible if the government intends on realizing its plan to produce a rice surplus by 2014, according to Haryono. "The level of damages has been classified as light, medium and severe," Haryono said.
He made his comments at a working meeting on intra-provincial cooperation attended by the governors of Bali, Banten, Central Java, East Java, East Nusa Tenggara, Jakarta, Lampung, West Nusa Tenggara and Yogyakarta.
Haryono said that repairs to the irrigation network needed attention from the central and regional governments. If the repairs were not made, more than 300,000 hectares of the nation's 7.23 million hectares of agricultural land would be affected.
Haryono said that the average rice production per hectare in Java exceeded 5 tons, well above the average recorded on other islands in the archipelago.
"In the outer provinces, Gorontalo has the highest rice production rate, while Bangka Belitung and Central Kalimantan have the lowest, which can be attributed to their terrain, which is mostly swamps," Haryono said.
Meanwhile, another meeting participant, Hendry Saptarini of the Indonesian Political Economy Association, said that cooperation between local administrations and the central government was needed to find the money to renovate the irrigation network.
"If the Finance Ministry does not support [repairs], it will be useless. Renovation of the networks is not only the burden of regional administration," Hendry said on Thursday.
Separately, Ali Effendi, the head of the Agriculture and Plantations Office in Cirebon, West Java, said that at least 5,000 hectares of paddy fields in the regency faced harvest failures due to the current long drought.
The affected fields are in 10 districts: Kapetakan, Suranenggala, Gunungjati, Panguragan, Gegesik, Pangenan, Losari, Pabedilan, Astanajapura and Mundu.
More than 2,000 hectares were facing harvest failures in Suranenggala and Kapetakan districts alone, he said. "Within the last several days the paddy fields have not received any water supplies. The paddy plants' age has reached 30 to 50 days," Ali said.
According to Ali, the lack of water could be principally attributed to a drop in water levels at Bendung Rentang Dam at Jatitujuh district in Majalengka regency, which is the main source of water for irrigation in Cirebon.
Ali said that more paddy fields would suffer harvest failures if the regency's water supply problem remained unsolved. "There have been thousands of hectares of other paddy fields that are facing water shortages. We are worried they will also face harvest failures," he said.
One local farmer said that he had already felt the pinch due to the drought. Tasman, a resident of Mundu district, said he had to use a water pump to find ground water to maintain his crops.
"I have to rent the water pump at Rp 20,000 (US$2.12) per hour. In order to water our paddy fields I have to operate the pump for at least six hours a day," Tasman said. "I have to do this, otherwise I will not be able to have a good harvest," he said.
Ali said that most of the 45,000 hectares of paddy fields in Cirebon relied on water from Bendung Rentang Dam.