UN agency calls for immediate funds to ensure farm production after Indonesian quake

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today called for $5.6 million in immediate funding for victims of last month’s earthquake in Indonesia to ensure that small-scale irrigation repairs are completed and seeds and fertilizers are in farmers’ hands before the next cropping season in October.

“Quick donor response to the appeal is crucial to ensure adequate food production in the months ahead,” FAO said of the appeal, which is part of the UN’s $103-million Inter-agency Earthquake Response Plan launched last week to meet the needs for emergency shelter, medical assistance, clean water, sanitation and food over the next six months.

Preliminary estimates indicate approximately 100,000 farming households in the affected districts of Yogyakarta and Central Java provinces have lost their productive assets and source of income. Harvesting could be delayed this season or crops completely lost, according to FAO.

“Farming families will not be in a position to replenish their stocks of agricultural inputs easily,” FAO emergency coordinator Rajendra Aryal said, adding that much needs to be done to restart animal husbandry and rehabilitate damaged irrigation wells.

Farmers represent 40 per cent of the rural population in Yogyakarta Province, and they need immediate assistance in the form of rice, secondary crop and vegetable seeds, fertilizer and agriculture equipment to resume food production.

Lost livestock will also need to be replaced, livestock shelters, trading markets and veterinary laboratories quickly rehabilitated, animal vaccines replenished, and damaged irrigation systems repaired, FAO said.

The 27 May quake killed more than 6,000 people and displaced at least 200,000 others.