Minister of Agriculture (Mentan) Andi Amran Sulaiman encouraged the agricultural department together with all farmers in West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) to immediately install water pumps in their rice fields. This step needs to be taken to anticipate El Nino which will lead to a long dry season which is expected to happen once more this year.
“The El Nino drought has overlapped and we have to be alert. Therefore we have to install as many pumps as possible so that the rice fields can be irrigated so that we can speed up the planting period,” said Amran in a written statement, Friday (3/5).
He said that so far there were more than 4,000 pumps prepared for NTB. However, these thousands of pumps can still be increased to 6,000 if the water in the existing rivers continues to be wet, aka not dry.
“For NTB, 4,000 pumps. If we want to add more, we will increase it to 6,000 pumps. Why? Because September, October and November are the most critical. This is what we need to make a quick solution for through pumps,” he said.
Meanwhile, Acting NTB Governor Lalu Gita said that his party was ready to carry out all the Minister of Agriculture’s directions, both pumping and water management to fill the dam. It is hoped that this method will provide farmers with access to water even during the dry season.
“Earlier the Minister mentioned water management, namely rain harvesting in the upstream sector, to fill dams outside the rainy season. If the dams are full, water can be channeled to rain-fed areas through irrigation channels,” he stressed. (Z-11)
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