Thousands Of Hectares Of Rice Fields In Central Java Are Threatened With Harvest Failure Due To Floods

Illustration - Sawah is flooded. (ANTARA/M Ibnu Chazar/dok)

SEMARANG - The Department of Agriculture and Plantation of Central Java Province said thousands of hectares of agricultural land in a number of districts were threatened with crop failure due to floods that hit rice fields.

Head of Central Java Distanbun Supriyantom said that the flooded agricultural land was located in Grobogan, Demak, Kudus, Jepara and Pati Regencies.

Based on data as of March 15, 2024, he said, 4,381 ha of rice crop land in Grobogan Regency was affected by flooding with the age of rice plants 5-100 days after planting (HST).

"The 152 ha corn area was also affected by flooding in Grobogan. The commodity of shallots is also. The land affected by the flood is 84 ha," he said, quoted by ANTARA, Tuesday, March 19.

For Demak, he said 162 ha of rice fields were flooded with a rice age of 10-90 HST, then onion land covering an area of 765.76 ha was also affected by flooding.

In Kudus Regency, he said, as many as 2,776 hectares of rice land with ages 10 to 90 HST were affected by flooding, then a number of other commodities, such as melon and chili.

"There are 63 hectares of melon plants and four ha of chili land (floods) in Kudus," he said.

Meanwhile, in Jepara, he continued, 1,989 ha of rice land was recorded with the age of 30 to 80 HST which was flooded.

The worst impact on agricultural land is actually Pati, which is 6,961.4 ha of rice land in Pati flooded.

"In Pati there are 6,961.4 ha rice fields affected by the age of 10-80 HST rice. There is also corn land with an area of 153.1 ha inundated in Pati," he said.

The data, he said, may continue to grow, considering that flooding has not subsided in the area so that puso cannot be confirmed or land damage due to flooding.

The high intensity of rain is one of the causes of flooding that has an impact on agricultural land on the north coast of Central Java.

"In addition, there are rivers that cannot accommodate water and the Lusi River embankment has collapsed again. We are still collecting data and facilitating flood management facilities," he concluded.