FLOOD FURY: A woman wades through a flooded area in Karawang, West Java, Indonesia. Floods inundated villages after an overflowing river bursted its banks, forcing residents to evacuate. Photo: AP
Indonesia needs consultation with the Agricultural Secretary of the USA. Deforesting to convert to agricultural lands is destroying the land and the ability of that land to retain water. The flooding is directly due to mismanagement of sensitive tropical forests when they are cut down in high moisture climates.
Mustaqim Adamrah , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Mon, 03/29/2010 10:37 AM | Business
The government will build on-farm reservoirs in the near future in flood-prone villages, (click title to entry - thank you) including in flood-hit Karawang in West Java, where flash floods have hit farms and may endanger food supplies, to try to help prevent future disasters.
“In the short term, [we] will build on-farm reservoirs in flood-prone villages,” Agriculture Minister Suswono told The Jakarta Post over the weekend in a short text message.
“[We] will give seeds and fertilizers as replacements [for damaged ones] to farmers in areas affected by the floods.”
Suswono, however, did not elaborate how much money would be spent on these plans.
He also did not say how government plans might help mitigate an ongoing lack of food supplies in the affected area — as a result of the floods — which originated outside the Karawang regency and have caused major problems for thousands of victims, including many children, who have begin to suffer from diseases.
The minister added that future challenges to the agricultural sector included climate change, massive land conversion and poor infrastructure, including damaged irrigation systems.
“The government will soon issue a government regulation on the implementing regulation of the 2009 Law on the Protection of Sustainable Agricultural Production for Food to protect productive lands,” he said, adding the regulation was expected to be finalized later this year.
The floods in Karawang, which have lasted more than a week, are believed to be the worst in 15 years.
Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan has blamed the situation partially on the conversion of large tracts of the banks of the Citarum River into agricultural land, leading to “22 percent of the land becoming problematic”....
