"Currently, the global food situation is not in a good condition. The challenges in providing food to the community are getting more complex," he said during a meeting with Commission IV of the House of Representatives (DPR) in Jakarta.
The challenges include the forecast of drought during this year's dry season by the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) as well as the geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, he expounded.
As per Statistics Indonesia (BPS), the rice planting area reached 8.61 million hectares in the period from October 2023 to June 2024 — a decline of 4.2 million hectares, or 32.8 percent, compared to the average for the same period from 2015 to 2019, which was recorded at 12.82 million hectares.
The shrinking of the planting area greatly affected the rice harvest area, which dampened production.
The Ministry of Agriculture has been seeking to improve rice production through the planting area expansion program, which includes measures such as water pumping rain-fed land, optimizing swamp land, and intercropping rice with oil palms.
"With these three measures, it is hoped that the production can be boosted so that the availability of domestically produced food can improve and the dependency on rice imports can be reduced," he said.
Earlier, Minister Sulaiman informed that as of August 7, 2024, the realization of planting area expansion has reached 915,394 hectares.
The success of the PAT program has been significantly supported by the acceleration of the water pumping program that has covered more than 716,293 hectares of land.
For 2024, the Ministry of Agriculture has allocated 62,378 pumps under the water pump assistance.
Related news: Jokowi inspects water pump program in South Sulawesi's Bone
Related news: Need large-scale water pump installation to face drought: minister
Translator: Aji Cakti, Raka Adji
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
Copyright © ANTARA 2024
