Chief of the Assessment and Application of Technology Agency (BPPT) Hammam Riza announced that his office is calculating the country’s financial losses from enduring crop failures caused by drought. “It’s still in the form of a proposal. It will predictably reach Rp3 trillion,” said Hammam on July 10, in Bogor, West Java. He was hard-pressed on finding a solution and mentioned that weather modification technology comes to mind, which is a technology that creates artificial rain. According to the BPPT data, Java, Bali, and West Nusa Tenggara are home to a large number of productive fields compared to other regions across the country – with some already facing the downside of the drought. “If we intend to save trillions of rupiah caused by massive crop failures, we must allocate the funds upon creating the artificial rain and overcome the drought. It would minimize the risk of experiencing crop failure,” Hammam warned. Previous reports from West Java’s Indramayu Agriculture Agency announced that there are 11,000 hectares of paddy fields that are experiencing the downside of the drought. They predict that it could potentially spread to a larger area. Source - https://en.tempo.co