IRRIGATION IMPROCEMENT BECOMES PRIORITY

           To achieve food self-sufficiency, the Agriculture Ministry formerly designated development of new paddy fields as priority. But, as the land promised by the National land Agency and the Forestry Ministry is not yet realized, starting from 2013, the priority will be on irrigation improvement. Agriculture Minister, Suswono, stated this matter.

 

           The benefit of improvement of irrigation system is productivity will directly become high. “We try to develop land whose plant index is one becoming two as this will affect the yield significantly. While, development of new paddy fields requires a long time to achieve high productivity, but it requires a long time due to land conversion.

         Bambang Soejanto, Director General of Forestry Planology of Forestry Ministry, said that the Forestry Ministry has set aside 3007,700 hectares of forest Ministry has set aside 307,700 hectares of forest that can be used for development of paddy field to support achievement of target of 10 million tons of rice surplus by 2014.

         The forest set aside is located in Central Kalimantan with a size of 178,500 hectares, East Kalimantan (9,900 hectares), and West Kalimantan support rice self-sufficiency”, said Bambang.

         According to Bambang, the setting aside of forest is obtained after macro analysis has been performed on convertible forest (HPK) that can be used for development of agricultural land.

         The above area is assured to have fulfilled criteria of agricultural land, namely non-peat, a river channel that can become source or irrigation, non-forest or bushes vegetation, and relatively flat land. The forest set aside has been in accordance with the National Level Forestry Plan (RKTN) which allocates forest areas for non-forestry activities.

        Information concerning the land has been conveyed to the Agriculture Ministry. Bambang said that he has sent a letter to the Director General of Agricultural Facilities and Infrastructures of the Ministry concerning information on the setting aside of land through letter No. S.163/Viii-REN/2012 sent on February 8, 2012. The letter contains attachment of complete map of the forest set aside.

         Bambang admitted that the area set aside still requires a field survey to obtain a more detailed data. The reason is because the area set aside is acquired from map analysis with 1:250,000.

 Business News - February 17, 2012