A farmer packs sacks of salt on a dike during harvest at a salt pond in Pengarengan village, Cirebon, West Java Province, Indonesia, on July 30. [Photo/Agencies]

Salt farmers in Indonesia's West Java Province are reaping the benefits of an El Nino-driven drought even as crop farmers brace for a prolonged challenge from the baking heat.

The sprawling Southeast Asian tropical archipelago is grappling with an intensifying El Nino, a climate pattern that typically brings hotter, drier conditions across much of Southeast Asia, raising the risk of drought, wildfires and crop losses.

A worker prepares salt at a warehouse in Pengarengan village, Cirebon, West Java Province, Indonesia, on July 31. [Photo/Agencies]

As a result, by July more than half of the country's seasonal zones were engulfed by a longer-than-expected dry season. The Indonesian weather agency has warned that El Nino will persist into early 2027. As of July, more than 5,000 hot spots were detected across the country, a sharp increase compared to previous El Nino years.

Most of Indonesia's salt production relies on low-tech methods that evaporate seawater in shallow coastal ponds during the dry season.