Team Webmaster : DPR RI member from South Sulawesi, Andi Akmal Pasluddin, said that the prolonged drought in 2019 had caused drought in almost all areas of the country. There are some areas, this drought triggers land fires, clean water difficulties, to forest fires, there are also some areas where this drought results in crop failure or puso.
This elected Legislator from Bone Regency asked the government, within the next 1 month, it is necessary to anticipate good food stock management due to crop failure which is currently affecting a number of regions in Sulawesi such as Bone, Bulukumba, Wajo, Pangkep, Maros, and surrounding areas.
“This prolonged drought season makes rice fields that fail to harvest or puso jump sharply this year. The government needs to prepare tactical steps to control rice prices in the next month which is expected to be volatile”, Akmal asked.
Akmal explained that the data he received from several sources said there had been a drought on agricultural land area that increased up to two times compared to last year. The agricultural land exposed to puso reaches up to 70 thousand hectares (ha). This figure increased sharply when compared to last year, which reached 30 thousand hectares.
In addition to crop failures that reduce the number of national food stocks, it has also triggered farmers to plant non-rice commodities, so that the supply of rice in their warehouses is empty. As a result, rice farmers become rice consumers.
Akmal added that the data from the Ministry of Agriculture also showed that the rice land affected by drought reached 31 thousand ha until July 2019. So the extent of the puso Land, shows that the area of failure is the most extensive compared to previous years where last year about 26-28 thousand ha.
“Although it is now starting to look like it will soon enter the rainy season, but due to this drought I hope the government does not import rice on a large scale. We will see the performance of the government in the next month whether it is able to overcome the management of food stocks, or is it the same as taking shortcut solutions and lazy thinking by importing rice”, concluded Akmal.