Indonesia needs to plant 2.3 million hectares with rice

Agriculture Minister Andi Amran Sulaiman has said that his ministry will cultivate a total of 2.3 million hectares of rice fields to achieve the food self-sufficiency target set by President Prabowo Subianto.

The rice fields will comprise rice fields developed through the swamp land optimization program, targeted at 851 thousand hectares; new rice field development over 500 thousand hectares; and existing rice fields measuring 1 million hectares, he said here on Thursday.

According to him, the normalization of tertiary, secondary, and primary irrigation will be carried out on the 1 million hectares of existing fields, which are mainly located in Java Island.

With the normalization of irrigation, he said, farmers can carry out planting three times per year again.

Meanwhile, for the development of new rice fields, the Ministry of Agriculture is carrying out its program in eastern Indonesia, such as Merauke district, South Papua province.

The minister said that to strengthen irrigation infrastructure to realize food self-sufficiency, his ministry is synergizing with the Ministry of Public Works and the National Armed Forces (TNI).

The two ministries and TNI held a coordination meeting on irrigation at the office of the Ministry of Agriculture in Jakarta on Thursday.

Sulaiman expressed optimism that with cross-sector synergy in optimizing swamp land, developing new rice fields, and normalizing tertiary, secondary, and primary irrigation in existing rice fields, domestic rice production will increase.

“Our tasks to accelerate the achievement of self-sufficiency in accordance with the direction of the President have been clear,” he said.

Achieving food self-sufficiency is one of the goals being pursued by the Indonesian government under the presidency of President Prabowo Subianto.

Earlier, while delivering his inaugural speech here on October 20, 2024, President Prabowo expressed optimism that Indonesia will achieve food self-sufficiency in four to five years.

Tags: Indonesia, rice