Minister of Agriculture Andi Amran Sulaiman reiterated the government’s commitment to realizing Merauke as a national food barn. Amran emphasized that Merauke is projected to become the main source of national rice needs in the next two years.
“We are optimistic that in the next two years food self-sufficiency will start from here,” said Amran in a written statement, Tuesday (20/8).
As is known, the Ministry of Agriculture is currently optimizing 40 thousand hectares of swamp land spread across 6 districts in Merauke. Until now, the construction of the land optimization has reached more than half, with land cultivation and planting reaching 6,500 hectares. The rice planting process will continue as the harvest and construction of agricultural infrastructure, such as canals, bridges, and roads, are completed.
In addition, during a visit to Merauke, the Minister of Agriculture also reviewed the construction of a 135.5 km road from Ilwayab to Ngguti which is the main supporter of the 1 million hectare rice field development program.
“We designed this as long storage to irrigate the 1 million hectares of rice fields that we created,” he explained.
On the other hand, Amran instructed the creation of a one-hectare rice planting plot along the road every five kilometers. This plot will later be proof of the suitability of land in Merauke to support rice growth.
“Not only that, the first phase of land optimization in the districts of Merauke, Tanah Miring, Semangga, Kurik, Janggebob, and Malind will be expanded from 40 thousand hectares to 100 thousand hectares. To accelerate this target, as many as 70 excavators have been mobilized from Wanam to these districts, and an additional 20 large combine harvesters and seeds will be realized this month,” he said.
Agriculture in Merauke, he continued, will be built optimally through the concept of agricultural modernization. He hopes that agriculture in Merauke will be a model for several regions in Indonesia. (Z-11)
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