Fadjry Djufry, the ministry's head of the Agriculture Research and Development Agency, noted in a statement here on Saturday that implementation of the new normal order that coincidentally begin at the start of the dry season has raised vigilance on the threat to national food adequacy.
"Food availability would become the main focus during the COVID-19 pandemic, not only in terms of supply but also price, continuity, and stable distribution," he remarked during a webinar on food security in the dry season in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Djufry noted that the ministry had formulated numerous programs to secure and intensify food production through measures, including an intensification program applied on paddy fields spanning 5.6 million hectares in the second planting season.
Furthermore, the ministry will conduct the extraordinary intensification program in swampland areas and other alternative lands to step up production.
Djufry believes the move will bolster rice production by seven percent as targeted while concurrently helping to cope with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on food security.
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Board of Expert Head of the Indonesian Association of Agricultural Meteorology (Perhimpi) Prof. Rizaldi Boer projected a relatively wet dry season in 2020 while also highlighting no global climate indication on the threat of a massive drought.
Nevertheless, Boer highlighted the need to monitor updates on the seasonal forecast to set in place precautionary measures to secure food production during the dry season.
Head of the ministry's Research and Development Agency of Agricultural Land Resources Husnain stated that food production will be optimized chiefly in the swampland areas in South Kalimantan and South Sumatra.
The extraordinary intensification program will be implemented in the four districts of South Barito, North Barito, Kapuas, and Pulang Pisau in Central Kalimantan to increase production by 1.5 million tons.
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Translator: Subagyo, Sri Haryati
Editor: Yuni Arisandy Sinaga
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