"The project would be carried out by phases to be completed in three years," Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman said.Pati, C Java (ANTARA News) - Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman said the government will repair irrigation system for 3 million hectares of farm lands as part of the program to improve the productivity of food crops.
"The project would be carried out by phases to be completed in three years," Amran said when inspecting the Sriwedari dam in the sub-district of Jaken, Pati District, Central Java, on Wednesday.
In 2015, repairs would cover irrigation system for 1 million hectares of farm lands," he said.
In Pati , repair will be made of irrigation channels for 5,000 hectares of rice fields, he said.
The irrigation channels are tertiary irrigation systems channeling water from dam and secondary irrigation system to rice fields , he added.
However, the job of repairing the primary irrigation system that channel water from dam and secondary irrigation system,is the responsibility of public works and housing ministry .
"Therefore, we have to team up with the public works ministry that the work target could be reached," Amran said.
He said many tertiary irrigation systems have been damaged that immediate repair would be necessary to make them functioning effectively .
He said part of the subsidy cut from oil fuel (BBM) appropriation would be used for the agricultural sector.
He pledged that the subsidy fund would be well spent in the agricultural sector.
He said large fund would be set aside for the repair of the irrigation systems, adding the government would provide a budget of Rp50 trillion for the agricultural sector.
The budget fund would be used to build dykes or dams, irrigation systems, to procure farming tools and equipment, seeds and for fertilizer subsidy.
The minister said he would make similar inspection visits to East Java , West Java and Aceh.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
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