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Agriculture Ministry's Three Programs to Raise Rice Production
WINDONESIA June 26, 2024
A rice paddy field. (Agriculture Ministry Public Relations).
The Agriculture Ministry is stepping up efforts to increase the expansion of planting areas to increase rice production through the Swamp Land Optimization, Water Distribution System, and Upland Rice Planting programs.
"With our Minister's direction over the Agriculture Ministry in the past three months, we are pushing for three programs to expand additional planting areas and reach 1 million hectares (ha) each year. "In fact it (the additional planting areas) could reach 1.7 to 2 million hectares every year," Agriculture Ministry Agricultural Instrument Standardization Agency (BSIP) Head Fadjry Djufry stated during a virtual discussion on Food Security in the Hands of Millennial Farmers, which was held by the Communications and Informatics Ministry on Jun. 24, 2024.
For the Swamp Land Optimization program, Fadjry further explained that the Agriculture Ministry is targeting 400,000 ha in 11 provinces which has swampland that could be optimized for rice planting.
The land optimization are to be carried out by focusing on improving existing irrigation.
"Our 11 focus areas include Lampung, Bangka Belitung [Islands], Jambi, and Central Kalimantan to South Kalimantan," he said.
For the water distribution system expansion program, the Agriculture Ministry looks to optimize dry land by using water pumps to make more sources of water available. The ministry is targeting 1 million ha of rain-fed rice fields which could be used as part of said program.
"The 1 million ha include 500,000 ha in Java Island and 500,000 ha outside Javaa," Fadjry said.
Meanwhile, for the Upland Rice Planting program, the Agriculture Ministry is targeting 500,000 ha of land used for plantations of oil palm and other commodities to be planted with upland rice in the intervening periods between the main crops' planting seasons.
"We are hoping that we could increase the size of our planting area with those three initiatives so that our rice production rises accordingly," he said.
Rice production levels is set to drop significantly in early 2024 based on Statistics Indonesia (BPS) data, a phenomenon line with the decline in the rice harvest area.
Rice production in the January to April 2024 period is estimated to only reach 18.59 million tons, a 17.54 percent year-on-year (yoy) decline.
Meanwhile, the rice harvest area during the same period is estimated to reach 3.52 million ha, which is a 16.48 percent drop yoy.
Source: money.kompas.com
