Knowing about the rice field project that Jokowi visited at the top of the demo page

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com – President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) decided to continue his working visit to Central Kalimantan to check the rice fields directly at the project on the peak day of the demonstration against the Job Creation Law.

The great project known as the national food granary o food farm This is part of President Jokowi’s second term food self-sufficiency program. Importing food remains a task that has not yet been completed as promised by his campaign.

To meet national food needs, Jokowi opened tens of thousands of hectares of rice fields in Kalimantan and Sumatra, most of whose land is dominated by peatlands.

The Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing (PUPR) has even spilled trillions of rupees this year. Meanwhile, the total inter-ministerial food security budget will reach IDR 104 trillion in 2021.

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“ Food farm, a food barn, is being built to strengthen national food reserves, not only upstream, but also downstream for industrial food products, “Jokowi said at the MPR Annual Session last August.

This program is also part of the National Strategic Project (PSN) 2020-2024. In addition to the Ministry of PUPR, this project is carried out in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Defense, Ministry of ATR / BPN, Ministry of BUMN and local governments.

The national food storage project is nothing new in Indonesia. In the era of President Soeharto, food farm launched in Central Kalimantan, which was criticized for land clearing that resulted in severe destruction of forests in Kalimantan.

Rather than being successful, the current food granary project is not even optimal due to difficult-to-cultivate peat bogs for rice fields. Kalimantan’s forests have already suffered damage after the project was stopped.

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Hundreds of thousands of hectares of land cleared

When the kunker was in Pisang Island Regency, central Kalimantan, Jokowi said that the area food farm It will be cultivated in an area of ​​168,000 hectares (ha). Then, in 2020, an area of ​​30,000 ha was developed as a pilot model. This land will be in Pulang Pisau Regency, covering an area of ​​10,000 ha and Kapuas 20,000 ha.

“Here, for example, we use drones to fertilize, to plow the fields with a floating tractor. Did I ask them how many hectares in a day it can be? The operator said it could be 2 hectares. This is the speed,” explained Jokowi.

Jokowi explained that this visit was in the context of a review food farm, the process of cultivating the land and planting rice, fish cages, and duck farming.

“So today I am back in the province of Central Kalimantan, especially now in the Pulang Pisau regency, with the desire to confirm the start food farm“Jokowi said.

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The former governor of DKI Jakarta added that work is being done on the development of the food storage area on a large scale, so the mechanization of modern equipment is needed.

In addition, several basic products will be developed in the same area, including food crops, horticultural products, plantations and animal husbandry, and fishing.

“This food barn combines paddy fields planted with rice and then planted with oranges, shallots and coconuts around the edges. We hope that the results will be given, the farmers are not only rice fields but there are oranges, coconuts and others ”, he explained.

Jokowi said that business model combinations would apply in the region. food farm this as a pilot stage. That way, if this effort is successful, it will be replicated in other areas.

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He also said that Pulang Pisau Regency and Kapuas Regency had large tracts of land and everything was flat. According to him, the wealth of water is abundant and the land is fertile, so it is a pity that it is not used to make the land productive.

“With these methods we hope that farmers’ income will increase, not only from rice but also from oranges, onions, coconuts, fish and also ducks,” Jokowi added.

Strategic project

Separately, Minister of Agriculture (Mentan) Syahrul Yasin Limpo explained: food farm is one of the 2020-2024 National Strategic Programs to build a national food barn.

“This effort can create jobs in rural areas, provide social protection, increase the income of family farmers, and ensure national food security,” Syahrul said.

He said, the expansion of the area food farm in Central Kalimantan it is carried out with intensive wetland optimization technology to increase production and cropping index (PI).

Also read: Jokowi: The Food Estate area in Central Kalimantan will be worked on an area of ​​168,000 hectares

Agricultural development is carried out using existing modern technology. development area food farm A farmer business business model will be built by involving farmer groups on the land per 100 ha and farmer group associations (Gapoktan) on the land per 1000 ha.

“Everything is in the form of downstream and all industries must be well designed. The development of this food field is a pilot model,” he said.

The minister who is familiarly called SYL also said that currently, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, the agricultural sector gave positive growth of 16.24 percent in the second quarter (quarter to quarter).

Therefore, special efforts are needed to maintain food security and availability in order to create a peaceful and prosperous society. According to him, all parties must work hard and cooperate in an effort to provide additional food stocks nationwide.

“Hopefully this epidemic will end soon and activities will return to normal, so that people’s economies will revive,” Syahrul said.

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