South Kalimantan develops floating rice on styrofoam

Banjarmasin, S Kalimatan (ANTARA) - Farmers in South Kalimantan Province have begun to develop floating rice farming on styrofoam, one of which in Hamayung Village, Daha Utara Sub-district, South Hulu Sungai (HSS) Regency.

Today's (Tuesday, April 4, 2023) floating rice harvest and thanksgiving in Hamayung Village was attended by the Governor of South Kalimantan H Sahbirin Noor.

He met with Cinta Maju Farmers Group in the village who have succeeded in developing floating rice planting on 0.6 hectare area using as many as 1,500 styrofoam.

Governor appreciated the success as an effort to overcome the high water level in agriculture land, which made planting period difficult or even impossible.

Governor, who is popularly known as Uncle Birin, said that the extreme weather with high rain intensity or "rain in the dry season" had made the low agricultural land in South Kalimantan difficult to cultivate.

He said, the floating rice planting system was a breakthrough and could run successfully. It could continue to be developed even more, especially in swampy areas.

South Kalimantan, said Uncle Birin, has a very wide swamp area reaching more than 290 thousand hectares and only a small portion ca be utilized continously.

Read also: South Kalimantan Governor instructs free health service at flooding areas

Head of South Kalimantan Agriculture and Food Security Agency Syamsir Rahman said that the floating rice planting system has begun this year, not only in Hamayung Village, HSS, but also in other villages in other districts.

"The Provincial government is assisting farmer groups' floating rice activities with as many as 3,500 Styrofoam distributed in South Hulu Sungai (2000 styrofoam), Barito Kuala (500 styrofoam), and Balangan (1,000 styrofoam)," he said.

He hopes that floating rice farming system to be developed more broadly, so that food supplies in South Kalimantan wil be bigger in the future.