REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, TANGERANG -- Some 13 thousand hectares of paddy fields in Tangerang have been destroyed due to the floods, according to the Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Office in Tangerang district, Banten province.

"We are still calculating the extent of the damage and what kind of assistance the farmers will need in case their crops failed," Bambang, the chief of the Crop Management Unit at Tangerang district's Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Office, noted here on Friday.

According to Bambang, several flooded paddy fields were ready for harvesting. The floodwaters have inundated the fields for almost four days now.

Bambang said he had proposed that the local farmers should be given free seeds, so that they can replant their paddy fields in the dry season.