Indonesia prepares 400 pumps to protect crops from El Niño risk
Indonesia’s Public Works Ministry says 400 irrigation pumps are ready for deployment and more will be added if needed to protect crop production in the coming dry season.
Indonesia’s Public Works Ministry said it has prepared 400 water pumps to support agricultural irrigation ahead of the dry season and the risk of an extreme El Niño. Public Works Minister Dody Hanggodo said the number is provisional and can be increased based on field needs, signaling that the government wants a flexible response rather than a fixed one-off intervention.
According to Hanggodo, the pump deployment is being coordinated with the Ministry of Agriculture so that programs do not overlap and support reaches the right areas, especially key rice-producing zones. That coordination matters because irrigation failures in those areas would quickly translate into pressure on national food production during the driest part of the season.
The minister also stressed that pumps alone will not solve the problem. He said tertiary irrigation networks must be developed so that the water delivered by those pumps can actually be distributed and used effectively across farm plots. Better infrastructure should make irrigation more efficient and improve agricultural productivity, particularly in rain-fed regions that are most exposed to rainfall volatility.
Hanggodo set out a clear production objective for those rain-fed rice areas: at least two harvests a year, and ideally three. In that sense, the measure is not being presented simply as emergency support but as a way to raise cropping intensity and reduce climate risk in one of the country’s most strategic farm sectors.
Agriculture Minister Andi Amran Sulaiman had already said that his ministry was working with the Public Works Ministry to repair irrigation networks. Those repairs are intended to preserve stable water supplies for farmland as the threat of reduced rainfall grows. The pump program therefore sits within a broader mitigation effort rather than standing alone.
Taken together, the announcements show that Indonesia is trying to combine immediate field-level action with longer-term irrigation improvements. If the dry season becomes severe, the government expects the extra pumps and network repairs to help prevent losses in rice production and to reduce the risk of disruption in domestic food supplies.