Indonesia: El Nino drought poses poverty challenge for Widodo

NICHOLAS OWEN Reuters 28 Oct 15;

On a dry and dusty sports field in central Java, Indonesian men dressed as traditional warriors take turns to battle with wooden staves, while village women crowd around, chanting: "All farmers let us pray that rain comes and washes our sorrow away."

As in many parts of Java, Indonesia's main rice-growing island, seasonal rains are late coming to Karang Jati. A drought caused by the El Nino weather pattern, which scientists say could be the worst on record, means fields are fallow weeks after they would normally be sown. So the villagers have turned to a rain-making ritual to hasten the planting season.

Crop failures caused by an El Nino drought presage more pain for Southeast Asia's largest economy, which is already growing at its slowest pace in six years, by squeezing incomes, fanning inflation and pushing more people into poverty.

All this piles pressure on Joko Widodo, Indonesia's first president from humble origins, who made poverty reduction a priority but has seen it swell across this archipelago of 250 million people since he took office a year ago.

The number of people officially classed as poor actually rose in the first six months of his presidency to 28.6 million in March from 27.7 million in September 2014.

Twenty of Indonesia's 34 provinces are currently stricken by severe drought, according to the meteorology agency.

The World Bank says that if there is a severe El Nino this year, rice production will fall by 2.1 million tonnes, or 2.9 percent, and rice prices will rise by 10.2 percent.

That price rise will hit the poor hardest because they spend more of their income on food than the well off.

"Reduced agricultural incomes and higher prices could be devastating for poor households," the Bank said in a report, adding that rice imports may be needed if El Nino intensifies.

"NO RAIN, NO MONEY"

Widodo has provided more funds for cash transfers and social schemes, but so far has refused to sanction rice imports, keen that Indonesia should be self-sufficient in food.

"We are not talking about imports," Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro told Reuters in a recent interview. "We are trying to make sure the domestic stocks are available and accessible."

Other countries at risk of an El Nino drought, such as the Philippines, have taken advantage of low global rice prices to boost stocks with foreign imports.

Such measures at least cap inflation if crops fail, though they mostly benefit people in towns who consume rice, rather than the farmers who produce it - all they can do is pray for the weather to change.

"Our paddy fields depend on rainwater, so if there is no rain we suffer," said Darijan, a 60-year-old farmer in central Java who has started selling his soil to brick-makers to make ends meet.

Agriculture accounts for nearly 14 percent of Indonesia's gross domestic product, the highest among Southeast Asia's five main economies. One-third of the labor force works in farming, and more than half of poor households live off the land.

"What is very important ... to the poverty numbers is rice production and rice prices," Steven Tabor, the Asian Development Bank's head in Indonesia, told a recent conference. "And the beginnings of El Nino seem to suggest that we may be in for rising poverty toward the end of the year."

As the drought drags on, Karang Jati's farmers such as 70-year-old Rohadi Rustam are anxious.

"If there's no rain, we have no money," he said, sitting by his sun-cracked fields. "That's how we farmers live."

(Additional reporting by Heru Asprihanto, Quincy de Neve and Arzia Tivany Wargadiredja in JAKARTA; Editing by John Chalmers and Simon Cameron-Moore)

Residents leave drought-hit villages in Banjarnegara
Agus Maryono, thejakartapost.com 28 Oct 15;

Hundreds of residents from several villages in Banjarnegara regency, Central Java, have abandoned their villages due to their livelihoods having been lost to drought.

Village officials said that many villagers from across Kalibening district, mainly from Majatengah, Kaligombang and Sembawa villages, had moved to provinces outside Java.

“Most of them moved to Kalimantan to work on palm-oil plantations. Many of them took their families as it would have been difficult for them to provide for their basic needs [remotely],” Sembawa village head Slamet told journalists on Tuesday.

Slamet said the majority of Sembawa villagers were farmers who heavily depended on their farms. Many of them have now left their farm land, which have gone dry after several months of drought. “Economic difficulties drove them from their homes. There are only children and the elderly currently staying in the villages,” said Slamet, adding that the villagers had left to earn the capital needed to cultivate their land from scratch again.

Tukiran, 45, a Sembawa villager, said that since the beginning of September many farmers had begun to leave their farm land. “The paddy fields went dry while corn fields and salak [snake fruit] plants were destroyed by wild boars. [...] They then decided to temporarily leave their home areas to make their way in life,” said Tukiran. He added that farmers also lost their livestock to the drought as all the grasses needed to feed animals had gone dry.

Similarly, Daryono, 37, a Majatengah villager, said the drought afflicting Banjarnegara had brought misery to villagers in the regency. Many residents, who heavily relied on palawija, or crops planted as second crops during dry season, such as corn and cassava, became desperate after combination of the drought and wild-boar attacks.

Daryono said many wild boars had attacked farmers’ plants due to the depletion of their usual food sources. “Only rubber farmers are still holding out in Majatengah. The others have moved to big cities,” he said.

Banjarnegara is one of 35 regencies and municipalities in Central Java. It is home to around 900,000 people and 70 percent of those live in villages with food-crop farming as their main livelihood.

Banjarnegara borders with Wonosobo regency to the east and Banyumas regency to the west. Salak is a prime commodity of Banjarnegara, one of the poorest regencies in Central Java, and its growth depends on rainfall. (ebf)(+)