JAKARTA: Indonesia’s unhusked rice output in January-April 2021 is expected to climb to 25.37 million tonnes, up nearly 27% from the same period last year, boosted by a larger rice-producing area, statistics bureau data showed on Monday.

Around 4.86 million hectares (12.01 million acres) is expected to be used to produce rice this year, up from around 3.84 million hectares last year, as some areas recover from extreme wet weather and flooding in early 2020.

However, risks from too high rainfall will persist this year, Suhariyanto, the head of the statistics bureau, told reporters.

“What we have to watch out for is high rainfall, which could threaten crop failure and also flooding,” he said, noting that some provinces on the islands of Java and Borneo had been hit this year by flooding.

The Southeast Asian country is targeting unhusked rice production at 58.5 million tonnes in 2021, the agriculture ministry said in November.

Meanwhile, unhusked rice production in 2020 was 54.65 million tonnes, slightly up from 54.60 million tonnes in 2019, the data showed, but lower than a previous estimate of 55.1 million tonnes.