The pumping program currently being rolled out can strengthen the village economy to become stronger and more productive. Based on his calculations, farmers can even earn a profit of IDR 15 trillion in one year or IDR 150 trillion in 10 years.
“One pump can serve 50 to 100 hectares. Imagine if 10,000 pumps might serve just 50 hectares per pump, that would mean 500,000 hectares. If these 500,000 hectares might produce 1.5 million tons for West Java, that would mean increasing farmers’ income by IDR 15 trillion per year. What does that mean? The economy is moving in the villages,” said Minister of Agriculture (Mentan) Andi Amran Sulaiman at a pumping ceremony in Bandung, West Java, Tuesday (7/5).
According to Amran, West Java is one of the largest provinces that can produce rice productivity in Indonesia. Therefore, continued the Minister of Agriculture, pump installation is mandatory so that farmers can produce up to 3 times a year.
It is known that West Java received 10,000 units of pumping assistance and will be distributed to 27 cities/districts. It is hoped that this assistance will be able to irrigate rain-fed land so that it can produce as expected.
“Previously, West Java’s assistance was 4,100 pump units, now the new addition is 2,700 units and we will add another 6,000 when everything has been installed. So this year it will be 10,000 units for West Java and this is the largest since West Java was established,” he said.
Pumping, continued Amran, is a quick solution to anticipate the long El Nino which reduced rice production last year. On the other hand, currently the government is also preparing a 10,000 hectare modern agricultural cluster which will be on par with other developed countries.
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“This pump is a quick solution to increase production in the face of El Nino. Later we will also create a cluster in West Java with 10,000 hectares of modern agriculture that is on par with other countries,” he explained.
In the same place, Director General of Agricultural Infrastructure and Facilities Ali Jamil said that the pumping movement was a quick solution that might increase national production significantly. Pumping is carried out massively because it can help farmers’ planting activities in the field.
“We are targeting this pumping to provide an additional minimum of 1.2 million tons of rice. Hopefully it can reach 1.5 million tons. That way, before three years we hope to be self-sufficient once more,” said Ali.
Ali also emphasized that the potential for rain-fed rice fields in West Java is 201,702 ha (IP 100) with a production of 9.09 million tons. From national records, of the 7.4 million hectares of raw rice fields in Indonesia, around 36% is rain-fed rice fields.
For your information, in the 2019-2023 period, West Java has received assistance from the Ministry of Agriculture in the form of cultivators for 2,084 hectares of land, hand sprayers for 5,517 hectares of land, 4,162 units of water pumps, 33 units of rice transplanters, 3,585 units of two-wheeled tractors, 298 units of four-wheelers, and 1,186 units of irrigation network rehabilitation. (Z-2)
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