Agricultural Articles

The Ministry of Agriculture's TIU Identifies Potential Pumping Locations in Four Regencies

21 May 2024

NATC Batangkaluku - The Ministry of Agriculture has made various breakthroughs to increases the index of cropping and productivity of rice. One of them is by strengthening the Expansion of Planted Areas (EPA) of rice through pumping on agricultural fields.

To support this breakthrough, the Agricultural Counseling and Human Resources Development Agency (ACHRDA) through the National Agricultural Training Center (NATC) of Batangkaluku carried out the identification of prospective farmers and prospective fields (PFPF) for the Pumping EPA which was held for 2 days (March 13-14, 2024) in Takalar Regency, Gowa Regency, Wajo Regency, and Luwu Regency.

This identification follows the direction of the Minister of Agriculture, Amran Sulaiman, who asked all regencies and cities all over Indonesia to massively intensify the pumping by utilizing the nearest water sources for agricultural irrigations.

“We encourage regencies and cities all over Indonesia to utilize the nearest water sources, both from rivers as well as dams. This action is necessary to anticipate the extreme weather of El Nino, which has lasted for a long time since 2023,” Amran said in a statement in Jakarta, Wednesday (13/3/2024).

According to Amran, pumping is a swift solution to El Nino in several regions. Later, this pumping system will be integrated with a service package of diesel fuel, agricultural tools and machinery, and free seeds for farmers who want to accelerate planting in the second planting period in March 2024.

In accordance with Minister Amran's statement, Head of ACHRDA, Dedi Nursyamsi invites all stakeholders to work in collaboration to overcome the global food crisis that occurs because of wars and El-Nino that occurs since 2023.

“Because of El Nino, rice stocks have dropped significantly, while in previous years we could produce 32.5 million tons, but in this year only 30 million tons of rice. Meanwhile, the number of people who are consuming rice is increasing, almost 4 million each year,” he explained.

Dedi added, “The global food crisis is a result of conflict, projectiles, and the war between Russia and Ukraine, the impact is very tremendous. This impact is extraordinary, causing the food supply in the world to decrease. Meanwhile, the number of mouths to be feed continues to increase,” he added.

Dedi said that one of the strategies to increase agricultural production is the pumping program, which is using water pumps to optimize the irrigation and watering of agricultural fields, thereby increasing yields and productivity.

In addition, field optimization is also being considered, in which attempts will be made to fully utilize the fields, including intercropping of plantation fields. By utilizing existing land more efficiently, it is expected to increase production.

Meanwhile, Head of BBPP Batangkaluku, represented by the Head of General Affairs, Rosdiana explained that the identification activities started by coordinating with the District Agriculture Office and the local Agricultural Counseling Center to request assistance in the field to do a survey of water sources as well as requesting data on the expansion of planting areas and the proposal for pumping aid.

“The identification results that have been collected from the 4 (four) regencies are then being recapitulated to be reported to the Ministry of Agriculture,” she explained.

(Red/*)
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