Kotabaru, S Kalimantan (ANTARA) - As many as 110 farmers in Kotabaru District, South Kalimantan, received assistance fund for palm oil revival through the program of the Indonesian Oil Palm Estate Fund (BPDP-KS). Each received Rp25 million per hectare.
Regent of Kotabaru H Sayed Jafar carried out the symbolic handover to the farmers' representatives at an informal dialogue (temu wicara) between the regent and residents in the Bungkukan Village hall, Kelumpang Barat Sub-district.
He said the meeting was aimed to produce the quality palm oil fruit and to produce the reduced size of planting from one tree to another.
"For revival please find a superior seed to produce high-quality palm oil fruit and 5 meters for planting spacing between trees, so they can produce more crop production," said the regent.
He advises that the assistance to be well expended, not for consumptive things, but to develop the business of palm oil plantation.
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Meanwhile, Head of the Kotabaru Agriculture Agency Hairuddin said, this activity was a follow-up of the 2019 program aimed at increasing productivity by replacing plants of 25 years old and over whose origins were unclear and productivity below 10 tons per year per hectare.
"In the future, we will try to use the land underneath. We will plant mountain rice or to breed livestock, for example, in order to maximize people's income," Hairuddin said.
Palm oil revival assistance was handed over to 32 farmers of Bungkukan Village and 78 farmers from Banjarsari Village, Sampanahan Sub-district, each received Rp25 million.
The ceremony was attended by heads of the district government working unit (SKPD), head of Kelumpang Barat sub-district, head of sub-district, Forkopimca, Banjarsari farmers group, and Bungkukan residents.
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