Hundreds Of Hectare Of Rice Plants Ready For Harvest In Cilacap Affected By Flood

Rice plants ready to harvest in Danasri Lor Village, Nusawungu District, CIlacap Regency, have been affected by floods that have occurred since Tuesday (15/3/2022). ANTARA/HO-Cilacap Agriculture Service

CILACAP - The Department of Agriculture of Cilacap Regency, Central Java stated that hundreds of hectares of rice plants ready to harvest in various areas in the district were affected by flooding.

"Based on the data, in Nusawungu sub-district there are 758 hectares of rice fields whose rice plants are ready to harvest in about one week. In addition, there is a rice seed nursery of approximately 10 hectares," said Head of the Food Crops Division of the Cilacap Regency Agriculture Office, Mlati Asih Budiarti, quoted by Between, Monday, March 21.

She had time to check the flood-affected rice fields in Nusawungu on Friday (18/3) and at that time the water level was very high, so the rice plants ready to harvest were barely visible.

According to her, farmers whose rice crops can still be harvested are still trying to harvest them.

"But farmers who want to harvest also have difficulty because the water is so deep that the grains of rice cannot be seen. There is also no energy to harvest rice. Even when harvested, they also have difficulty finding a place to dry the harvested grain," she said.

She said that the grain harvested by a number of farmers who were on the side of the road because they had not had time to transport it were also flooded.

In addition to Nusawungu, she said, the flood also inundated 27 days after planting (HST) rice plants covering an area of 59 hectares in Kawunganten District.

Meanwhile, in Brebeg Village, Jeruklegi District, the flood had submerged 5 hectares of rice plants ready to harvest.

"Thank God, rice plants in Brebeg Village can still be saved even though the quality of the grain has turned black and the water content has increased," she said.

Mlati admitted that most of the rice plants affected by the floods, especially those in Nusawungu District, were not included in the Rice Crop Business Insurance (AUTP) program by the farmers.

"Actually, we always tell farmers to take insurance even though their fields are not in areas that are at risk of flooding, it's not expensive. But sometimes it's farmers who don't realize the importance of insurance," he said.