Indonesia: Hectares of farm land in Gunung Kidul, Java suffer water shortage

Antara 11 Jan 16;

Gunung Kidul, Yogyakarta (ANTARA News) - Hectares of agricultural land in Gunung Kidul district in Yogyakarta, Central Java, is suffering water shortage as no rain has fallen in the past few weeks.

Farmers have started buying water and also dug wells to get water supply.

Mujinugroho, one of the farmers from Playen village, said here on Sunday he started planting when the rainy season began early in December but rain only fell several days after that.

"Now we buy water to save the rice plants that have started to dry," he said.

He said he had bought water to supply his rice field five times at a cost of Rp46,000 per hour of supplying and "this is not yet maximal."

Muji said the two-month old plants were still good now and but he had to continue to assure they would remain alive.

Edi Prasetya from Pulutan said that no rain had fallen for the past few months causing rain-fed wells for farming and animal husbandry to dry.

"Some of the wells have dried up and the condition is worrying because no rain is coming," he said.

He said other farmers bought water from private suppliers adding he hoped the district government would help to meet the needs of clean water.(*)