Agriculture Minister Andi Amran Sulaiman said the government will distribute 75,000 water pumps in West Java, Central Java and East Java provinces. The pumps will channel river water to farmlands.
Amran explained that this effort was made in order to boost agricultural productivity, especially rice commodities, to anticipate the dry season which is prone to drought.
“In total, we are planning 75 thousand pumping units throughout Indonesia, the goal is to pump water in rivers that do not dry out during the dry season,” Amran said when met in Jakarta, Sunday (28/7/2024).
Furthermore, according to him, through the pumping program, it is expected that rice productivity in Indonesia can be boosted to five million tons in one harvest season. The presence of the pump will at least contribute to irrigating 500 thousand hectares of rice fields in the three provinces.
Mentan hopes that the increase in rice productivity can reduce the number of imports that are currently still being carried out by the government in order to maintain food security. Even this year alone, the government's rice import target has reached 3.6 million tons.
“This pumping is located in West, Central, and East Java, there are about 500 thousand hectares of rice fields, imagine if we pump it all, it can produce about 5 million tons, which means what, we can reduce imports,” Amran said.
Amran explained that currently there are 63 thousand water pumps that have been installed in West Java, Central Java, and East Java. According to him, this has a direct impact on rice productivity. In fact, according to him, based on data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), the total rice that will be harvested in the next two months will increase by around 700 thousand tons.
“Through the pump, those who previously only planted once became three times, meaning that production has increased, the results are already there, up to 700 thousand tons,” he said. (Wahyu Dwi Anggoro)