Land refunctioning in some regions in Central Java came to around 5% - 9%
of total land areas each year. Land refunctioning was happening in fertile soil
where rice, palawija second crops were grown like in Boyolali, Karanganyar,
Sragen, and Solo.
Vice Chairman of the KTNA Farmers and Fishermen Association of Central
Java, Munaji disclosed on Thursday [9/5] the Government was urged to
immediately stop land refunctioning process in Central Java as the condition
was most disheartening. If the change were let to continue to happen, it was
feared that in the next 10 years fertile plantation land in Central Java would
be reduced by half. Many farmers were tempted by the high price of land to be
bought by business people.
The negative effect of land refuctioning which continued to happen was
clearly visible in the contracting harvest land areas in Central Java. Data of
the Agricultural Dept in Central Java had it that in 2010 total harvested area
in the Province of Central Java came to 1, 801,397 ha. By 2012 total areas of
harvested land in Central Java was reduced to 1,773,559 ha. Meaning in 2 years
time there had been reduction of harvest areas by nearly 28,000 ha or
contraction of 14,000 ha of land each year.
Sub-division head of the Plantation and Horticulture Dept, Agriculture
Division of West Java Bimo Santoso stated that to anticipate reduction of
agricultural land, the Government must open new agricultural land and open new
rice fields; bust such was not easy to exercise as land in Java was limited. To
open new land could only be done outside Java where there was a vast land area.
The best way to stop land refunctioning to maintain the exercise
agricultural land was to set up a sound legal base. The existing agricultural
land must be “locked” from being changed into other functions. The measures
would be: not just by implementing the space planning masterplan [RTRW] but
also with the back up of Regional Regulations [Perda} issued by the Mayor or
Regent.
If the Government exercised the policy to prohibit land refunctioning,
the consequence was that the Government must procure supporting agro facilities
to support national rice production. To illustrate, many irrigation systems
were damaged, so the Government must repair them to support farmers’
activities. In Central Java the total area of damaged irrigation was posted at
67% which was the responsibility of the Provincial/regency authorities.
This year, for repairing agricultural facilities the fund needed was
around Rp178 billion, which were not all to be borne by the Provincial
Governments. Therefore, it was proposed that the Central Government allocated
fund to finance maintenance of irrigation network in the regions. The fund
would be used to repair irrigations system in 30 regencies/cities. The hundreds
of billions Rupiah of fund was only to repair irrigation system so they could
function normally till 10 years ahead. (SS)
Business News - May 15,2013
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