JAKARTA - Wildfires, smoke and drought are inflicting an increasingly painful toll on Indonesian agriculture, hurting everything from oil palm plantations to rubber trees and rice fields.
Smoke from illegal burning to clear land in Indonesia has been worse than usual this year and spread across South-east Asia, causing flight disruptions and respiratory illness for thousands of people. While Indonesian President Joko Widodo ordered a crackdown on arsonists, there may be little respite soon, as the rainy season won't start before late October, the weather bureau says. Forest fires to clear land have also wrought havoc in the Brazilian Amazon.
The worse-than-expected dry weather in Sumatra and Kalimantan in Indonesia and Sabah in Malaysia could reduce output from older palm trees, according to Mr Marcello Cultrera, institutional sales manager at Phillip Futures in Kuala Lumpur. The haze from the forest fires has a small impact on palm oil extraction rates and output in the very short term, he said.
The Indonesian government has said that only about 22 per cent of forestry business permit holders, or 2,179 firms, have submitted mandatory reports on forest fire control, suggesting a lack of commitment in preventing fires on their land. Still, oil palm plantations are generally not the source of burning, according to the Council of Palm Oil Producing Countries. Fires recorded in plantations have usually spread from neighbouring areas, it said.
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