Banjarmasin, S Kalimatan (ANTARA) - Head of South Kalimantan Food Crops and Horticulture Office Syamsir Rahman informed that the growth of young rice plants is currently looking good, and he is optimistis in the next months there will be a big harvest.
"We are optimistis rice production to increase this year to reach more than a million tons if looking the current condition," he said here, Wednesday.
Syamsir said planting period in large agriculture areas, including Barito Kuala, Banjar, and Tanah Laut, has been implemented and seem to be growing well.
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Although, he admitted, there is still concern about tungro pest attacks as happened during last year's planting season.
"In several locations there are still tungro, because of farmers still planting local rice," he expounded.
In addition, he said, some farmers still using the former tungro attach seeds that made them dwarf rice plants.
"My message is for farmers to plant superior seeds first which is more resistant to tungro attack than local rice," he pointed out.
Especially, Syamsir said, in the agriocultural area of Kurau, Tanah Laut District.
During the 2022 planting season, South Kalimantan's rice farming was attacked by tungro that caused local rice production to decrease significantly.
The Food Crops and Horticulture Agency recorded that paddy production in 2022 has only reached 800 thousand tons, from the usual 1.2 million tons.
South Kalimantan Province with 13 districts and cities has an agriculturale land area of 358,235 hectares.
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