So far, the government has distributed 25 thousand pumps to all provinces, director general of food crops at the ministry, Suwandi, informed at the Seeding Festival 2024 in Bandung district, West Java, on Saturday.
According to him, the water pumping program will allow inactive agricultural lands to be used as productive agricultural lands, and thereby, help secure food availability and support the achievement of food self-sufficiency in the country.
This step is deemed important to maintain food stock stability and control the prices of staple foods amid the current global uncertainties.
He expressed confidence that farmers will prosper with the help of the water pumping program, which will increase the planting index (IP) by increasing planting frequency from once or twice per year earlier to thrice per year.
"We believe the pumping program can increase food production and result in prosperity for farmers," he said.
In addition to water pumping, the Ministry of Agriculture is continuing to push for an increase in rice production in various regions through programs such as increasing planting areas and accelerating the planting period, he informed.
"We are pursuing planting area expansion; do not let even an inch of land (be) left unused. There is also a policy of the (agriculture) minister, namely cutting the distance (duration) between the harvest and planting time to 14 days," he expounded.
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Translator: Rubby Jovan, Raka Adji
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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