Minister to optimize S Kalimantan's swamp land, boosting rice production

Banjarmasin, S Kalimatan (ANTARA) - Indonesia's Agriculture Minister Andi Amran Sulaiman will optimize swamp land, including in South Kalimantan, to become productive to secure as well as increasing the national food production, especially rice.


The minister, after observing the potential of swamp land in South Sumatra, went stright away to South Kalimantan to observe rain-fed swamp land in Padang Village, Bati-Bati Sub-district, Tanah Laut Regency, Thursday.

"South Kalimantan is Indonesia's food support, so the Agriculture Ministry designated it, South Sumatra, Central Kalimantan, West Kalimantan, and South Sulawesi to become national food support," said Amran.

South Kalimantan, he said, has a potential of 200,000 hectares of swamp land, if optimally managed will produce 1 million tons of grain.

The effort to optimize swamp land is through rehabilitation and the rest to be built into rice fields.

"The planting index for swamp land here is once a year, we will increase it to twice. Then we will build embankments along the river, so the water is available and flood does not occur," said Amran.

He is optimistic to be able to build and optimize swamp land in South Kalimantan, especially in Tanah Laut District. The reason is, here the Serasi (Save swamp land, makes farmers prosper) program has run well. Even Tanah Laut was the best in fertilizer distribution, not a single farmer complained about fertilizer by applying KTP (ID card) to redeem subsidized fertilizer. 

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"The rice seeds used are superior, according to the wishes of farmers, not the central government. In the past, we heard farmers refused seed assistance, then we asked director general to stop it. Many farmers did not want to plant assistance seeds, because the production was low. Now the seeds that farmers throughout Indonesia are asking for are the ones that we are preparing," said the minister.

Director General of Agriculture Infrastructure and Facilities Ali Jamil added that in managing swamp land, efficient water management and improving irrigation are crucial. Farmers in Tanah Laut have not only converted rain-fed swamp land into productive fields, but they also,persistently created a network of drainage channel to keep the land fertile. 

"Before the Serasi program in 2019, this Tanah Laut location experienced problems that hampered planting. With the Serasi program, water management has been improved, making it possible to plant during rainy season, which previously was difficult due to the risk of flood," he said.

Acting Regent of Tanah Laut Syamsir Rahman said that the swamp land optimazation program to be carried out by Minister Amran is very good, as it is needed by the regional government and the farmers. They then can repair the damaged embankment and irrigation channels, so that the paddy fields can be replanted from one to two planting a year.

"Serasi Program was previously successful, embankments were good, irrigation was good, but after a big flood hit for 10 days, farmers were down. All embankments were damaged, our irrigation cut off by flood. We are happy that Minister come bringing swamp land optimazation program, so we can repair embankments and rice can be planted twice a year," he said.

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