Indonesia Experienced 835 Disasters Until April 2023, For Flood Sawah Failed To Harvest BNPB Make Sure It Was Replaced By The Government

Farmers saw firsthand that the fields planted in the morning were flooded. (Between-Rahmad)

JAKARTA - A total of 835 disaster events occurred in Indonesia until early April 2023. The National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) has confirmed that there will be compensation for the impact of disasters on farmers who fail to harvest due to flooding.

"For information, until April 12, 2023, the number of disasters that occurred reached 835 incidents and was dominated by wet hydrometeorological disasters such as floods, landslides, and extreme weather," said Head of BNPB Lt. Gen. Suharyanto in a statement, Friday, April 14, quoted by Antara.

He continued, one of the impacts of disaster events that was detrimental was the failure of farmers' crops in a number of areas.

For this reason, he said, BNPB was asked directly by President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) to replace community rice fields that failed to harvest due to the flood disaster in the first quarter of 2023.

"BNPB has the task of the President to replace farmers' fields that failed to harvest due to flooded rice fields. The replacement in question is production costs, so it is hoped that farmers can start production again the following season," he said.

He emphasized that only rice fields that failed to harvest due to the flood disaster were replaced by floods, not puso because of pests or others," said Suharyanto.

Now BNPB is preparing planning, conducting socialization, and collecting data on farmers whose rice fields were damaged due to flooding to each province affected.

During the meeting, the Head of BNPB was present and other high-ranking officials discussed the implementation of the program that had been carried out, including the achievement of budget and external absorption until early April 2023 and the work plan to be carried out by the end of the year.

He further explained that BNPB is still trusted as the coordinator of handling COVID-19 and Mouth and Nail Disease (PMK).

"Regarding the handling of COVID-19 and PMK, even though the situation is relatively under control, the COVID-19 Task Force and PMK are still present and combined into one with a period of duty until the end of June 2023," said Suharyanto who is also the COVID-19 Task Force and PMK.