"For us, (we are) preparing water (infrastructure) so that it can flow to farmers' rice fields. We focus on irrigation and completing the remaining dams," PU Minister Dody Hanggodo stated in Jakarta on Friday.
Hanggodo revealed that the ministry is currently focusing first on food security in accordance with President Prabowo Subianto's directive.
In supporting food self-sufficiency, the ministry will increase the planting area through optimizing the planting index (IP) by taking steps, such as providing irrigation water from existing dams, with a target area of 8,994 hectares (ha).
The Directorate General of Water Resources of the ministry is also targeting 222,717 ha of increased planting area carried out in irrigation areas (DI) from new dams and 74,778 ha through rehabilitation of the DI managed by the center.
They are also targeting 43,975 ha through the rehabilitation of provincial, district, and city DI through special allocation funds (DAK) and 133,100 ha through the rehabilitation of village and community irrigation areas through the Irrigation Water Utilization Improvement Acceleration Program (P3-TGAI).
Thus, the Directorate General of Water Resources is targeting a total of 483,563 ha of additional planting area in irrigation areas by 2025.
Moreover, the ministry expands agricultural cultivation by supporting land optimization techniques and implementing strategic pumping methods to increase planting areas.
The ministry continues to finalize the work program with the Ministry of Agriculture to accelerate the achievement of food self-sufficiency through support for water infrastructure.
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Translator: Aji Cakti, Cindy Frishanti Octavia
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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