December 29, 2025 | 04:46 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The head of Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), Teuku Faisal Fathani, stated that one of the determinants of the accuracy of weather and climate information is the services at the regional Technical Implementation Unit (UPT) level. During a visit to the Raja Haji Abdullah Tanjung Balai Karimun Meteorological Station in the Riau Islands on Sunday, December 28, 2025, he mentioned that the BMKG institution is built through solid cooperation across all organizational lines, from central to regional units.
"By strengthening infrastructure and human resource capacity, monitoring of natural phenomena can be carried out in real-time and in a sustainable manner," he said in a written statement on the same day.
Faisal highlighted a major challenge in Indonesia's agricultural sector: its dependency on the weather. Currently, 24 percent of local paddy fields are irrigated, while the rest still rely on rainwater.
"We should emulate developed countries that can manage water reserves at the end of the rainy season to suffice for one planting season," Faisal said.
One of the latest measures used to control rain and mitigate the risk of drought is weather modification technology. However, implementing this policy is not easy, considering that the cost can reach up to Rp300 million for a single flight. The funding for this operation typically comes from regional governments seeking to mitigate extreme rainfall, the National Agency for Disaster Management (BNPB) for disaster relief efforts, and plantation companies to prevent and halt land fires.
All of these expenses fall under the Non-Tax State Revenue (PNBP) of the BMKG. "It is quite costly to implement, so it is necessary to prioritize which regions will receive weather modification operations," he stated on December 1, 2025.
Faisal instructed all of his subordinates to improve the management of human resources and emphasized the importance of a transparent tour of duty system. His goal, Faisal said, is for employees in central and technical units, from Sumatra to Papua, to have extensive field experience before assuming strategic positions. "Make everyone a teacher and every place a school," he said.
Faiz Zaki has contributed to this article
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