AgroPages-Drought comes late in Indonesia-Agricultural news

The dry season has come a little late in Indonesia this year as some areas will still have a chance for rain showers, a government senior official says.

Mr Widada Sulistya, deputy director general for climatology at the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), said on Monday that Indonesia should have already entered the dry season in May, although in fact, some areas were still experiencing the rainy season.

'The drought will not be too dry this year. In some areas there will still be some rain during the dry season, although the rain showers will not occur as what happened in 2010. Currently, we occasionally have rain, but it is not as wet as in 2010. During that year , rain fell throughout the year,' he said.

Citing the BMKG data, he said that about 65 per cent of a total of 342 season zones in Indonesia had entered the dry season. They include most areas in Java, the southern parts of Sumatra, such as Lampung, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) and West Nusa Tenggara (NTB).