Indonesia braces for rice shortage due to El Nino

JAKARTA, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) — Indonesia would likely face a rice shortage at the end of 2023, estimated to be the worst in the country’s history, due to a widespread drought caused by El Nino, the Statistics Indonesia (BPS) said on Monday.

BPS Acting Head Amalia Adininggar Widyasanti told a press conference that the shortage of rice would be up to 1.45 million tons, adding that during the fourth quarter of this year, rice production was estimated to be around 4.78 million tons, or almost 11 percent lower than the same period of last year.

“The prolonged drought due to the El Nino effect has led to a decline in rice harvest, particularly in West Java, Central Java and South Sumatra provinces, the country’s three largest sources of rice,” Widyasanti said.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo said on his official social media account on Monday that 2023 has become a tough year for Indonesia, because the country faced not only the El Nino effect that caused long drought, but also climate change and rising temperatures. And those factors have affected the world’s food supplies.

“El Nino, rising temperatures, long drought that caused planting and harvest failures, in addition to unstable geopolitical conditions, have affected food supplies. For this, the government has been pushing for anticipatory efforts to ensure that our rice reserves are sufficient,” Widodo said.

Among the efforts, he said, was importing rice from partner countries totaling 2 million tons. Around 600,000 tons of imported rice are expected to arrive in Indonesia at the end of this year, mainly from Vietnam and Thailand.

Source – Indonesia News