Antara News·Indonesia·Friday, October 30, 2026 at 07:34 AM UTC

El Niño threat: Indonesia steps up mitigation to protect rice output

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Muhammad Arif Hidayat, Resinta Sulistiyandari

The Indonesian government is strengthening mitigation efforts to minimize El Niño's impact on national food production, particularly rice, by closely monitoring major rice-producing provinces.

Deputy Coordinating Minister for Food Hanif Faisol Nurofiq said on Friday that the government had assessed potential climate-related pressures on rice production and was strengthening water infrastructure in agricultural areas.

"Our rice stocks will be under pressure under these conditions. We have tried to closely monitor eight to 10 major rice-producing provinces. We also continue to operate water pumps and develop piped irrigation systems in these areas," he said during a field inspection and evaluation of forest and land fire management in Central Kalimantan.

Nurofiq projected that El Niño could reduce food production by hundreds of thousands of tons in rice equivalent. However, he said the government remained confident that it could maintain sufficient national rice supplies through the end of the year.

According to the government's provisional data, national rice production, calculated based on planting conditions, had reached around 32 million tons.

The government is also targeting an additional 1.5 million tons of rice production in December to strengthen domestic supplies and maintain national rice self-sufficiency.

To prepare for potential El Niño impacts next year, the government is coordinating with relevant ministries and institutions, including water resources authorities, river basin agencies, the Ministry of Agriculture, and the forestry sector, Nurofiq said.

Beyond maintaining production, the government is strengthening market interventions to protect people's purchasing power and curb food price fluctuations. These measures include distributing 30 kilograms of rice to each beneficiary family under a program targeting 33.24 million families.

Nurofiq said the interventions were intended to mitigate potential food price increases linked to El Niño and meet rising public demand ahead of Christmas and New Year, as well as Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr in early 2027.

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