Indonesia warns of rice crop damage in drought-parched fields

Indonesia rice

JAKARTA: Indonesia’s rice crop is at risk of damage from an unusually long dry weather spell that’s gripped several producing regions, raising prospects of elevated imports for a second year.

The dry weather has parched paddy fields across Java island, the main growing region, and the agriculture ministry sees the harvest failing in more areas than the 20,000 hectares already reported, according to Edy Purnawan, director of crop protection at the ministry.