South Kalimantan more potential to supply rice for new national capital

Banjarbaru, S Kalimantan (ANTARA) - Head of Agriculture Office Syamsir Rahman said South Kalimantan's rice production is much higher than other provinces in Kalimantan, that it has more opportunities to supply the need of the new national capital, Nusantara.

Last year, he said, the farmers' rice production range from 830,000 to 1.1 million tons. Whereas the need of 4.3 million of its inhabitants is only 430,000 tons per year, thus it has a surplus of 400,000 tons.

Meanwhile, East Kalimantan's rice production was 254,000 tons, which was sufficient for the need of the local people themselves.

Likewise Central Kalimantan with only about 254,000 tons and North Kalimantan even lower.

"That means South Kalimantan is the only province in Kalimantan which is expected to be able to meet the need of residents of the prospective national capital (IKN) Nusantara, which is estimated to increase by 4 million people," he pointed out.

This opportunity, he said, is now being fought for by South Kalimantan to be fulfilled through various programs.

"Even the governor asked that the APBD (budget) to be allocated to assist the development of South Kalimantan's agriculture," he expounded.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Agriculture targets South Kalimantan's rice production in 2022 to reach 1.2 million tons.

He hopes the production this year can be increased as long as the need for subsidized fertilizer for farmers can be met properly.

"Currenly, farmers find it difficult to get subsidized fertilizer, thus it is feared that it will disturb the achievement of South Kalimantan rice production targets," he said.

He hopes the problems with the shortage of subsidized fertilizers could be a concern for the central government to boost the achievement of national food surplus.