News Focus: INDONESIA EXPECTS MODERATE IMPACT OF EL NINO.

By Andi Abdussalam Jakarta, July 29 (ANTARA) - Experts have predicted that El Nino, a climate phenomenon with a significant influence on global weather, ocean conditions and marine fisheries, will begin hitting the Asian region, including Indonesia, later this year and will last until 2010. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists this month announced the arrival of El Nino. "Advanced climate science allows us to alert industries, governments and emergency managers about the weather conditions E Nino may bring," Jane Lubchenco, NOAA administrator, said in its Website. Indonesia, a country once severely affected by the climate phenomenon in 1997, has predicted that it will not have an extreme impact on or cause protracted drought in the country. "The temperature in Indonesia will relatively be moderate and there will be no protracted drought. If El Nino does happen we basically are now ready with what we have to do," Director for Environment Affairs of the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) Edi Effendi said on Tuesday. The same opinion was also expressed by deputy to the minister for agricultural and maritime affairs, Bayu Krisnamurti. Krisnmurti said that the impact of the 2009-2010 El Nino-triggered drought would not be as worse as that in the 1997-1998 dry spell, when over nine million hectares of forest were damaged and affected rice production, forcing the government to import at least five million tons of rice. This year, the government seems to have no need to import the basic staple. It assured that the impact of this year's El Nino-triggered drought could be controlled so that it has no plan yet to import rice. "There is no pressing need to import rice yet," Bayu Krisnamurti said on Monday. After all, rice production this year is much higher than that in the 1997-1989 dry season. He said that the country's second rice production forecast showed an increase of 3.71 percent, or the equivalent of 62.56 million tons of unhusked rice if compared with that in 2008. Based on the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG)'s prediction, the September-October 2009 El Nino is expected to have a moderate impact, though it would become stronger in November 2009. Krisnamurti said that based on the experience in the 1997-1998 period, the El Nino weather phenomenon caused a serious drought impact as the sea water temperature at that time was lower. But this year, the BMKG predicted that the sea temperature would still be warmer. This means that drought would not cause a severe impact as that in the 1997-1998 El Nino. Although it predicts the impact of the El Nino phenomenon would not be too severe, Indonesia remains alert. According to Edi Effendi of Bappenas, the impact of El Nino is moderate this time. "But the El Nino ...