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Droughts & Forest Fires in Indonesia
Indonesia suffered a drought during the 1982-83 El Niņo that affected the country's rice
crop and contributed to forest fire in the tropical Kalimantan region.
Evidence suggests that Indonesian droughts are strongly associated with El Niņo events.
An analysis of sea-salt production - which is closely linked to weather condition's - in
Madura, Java, over many years indicates that more than 90 percent of drought periods have
occurred during an El Niņo event. Other records have associated 78% of east monsoon
(April to October) droughts with El Niņo.
Since the early 1970s, Indonesia has introduced irrigation, and new seed varieties,
fertilizers, and pesticides, and has progressed from being the largest importer of rice,
to self-sufficiency in this product.
However, the 1982-83 drought severely retarded this rapid expansion of rice production.
There are normally tow rice crops in Indonesia, one during the dry season (May to October)
and a larger one in the wet season (November to April). During the 1982 dry season,
rainfall was very low. In the main rice producing regions there was no significant
rainfall for four to five months, and the start of the wet season was delayed for about a
month. The drought affected the dry season crop in 1982 and delayed the planting of the
1982-83 wet season crop.
In certain areas, this led to local food shortages, disruption of the drinking water
supply, loss of cattle, and to outbreaks of cholera. Throughout Indonesia, the crop
failure of 1982-83 led to more than 300 deaths.
The death toll could have been higher but for many farmers switching to maize [a more
drought resistant crop] after the first signs of the drought. Maize production increased
by 56 % in 1983. And partly offset the fall in the 1983 wet season rice crop.
Despite its description as the worst drought of the decade, rice production did not drop
below 1980 levels, and by 1984 the situation appeared to have returned to normal.
Indonesia's intensive agricultural system, irrigation and crop substitution helped reduce
the effects of the drought.
Forest fires in the East Kalimantan during 1982-83 were in many ways much more serious.
More than 3.5 million hectares in East Kalimantan, and 1 million hectares in Malaysian
Sabah were damaged. Fires raged for almost three months and were described as one of the
worst environmental disasters of the century.
The average annual rainfall in the forests is more than 2000 mm, enough to make the area
almost invulnerable to drought! However, lack of rain in 1982-83 caused the normally
evergreen trees to lose their leaves, which resulted in a build-up of dry litter on the
forest floor.
Smoke from the fires closed airports and ports, and reached as far as the Malaysian
peninsular, some 1500 km to the west. Peat swamp forest that had dried out to expose peat
surfaces burned in great, slow underground fires.
Though Indonesia's intensively developed agricultural system recovered fairly quickly from
the El Niņo drought, the tropical forests of Kalimantan and its delicate ecosystem will
take much longer to return to their normal conditions.
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