Acting Secretary General of the Ministry of Agriculture (Kementan), Prihasto Setyanto, revealed that Pemalang Regency, Central Java, has water availability that can be optimized, especially for rainfed rice fields. He conveyed this when inspecting the pumping location in Kandang Village, Comal District, Monday (22/4).
“Pemalang is extraordinary. There is a quite large Comal River and next to the river there is quite large rain-fed land on the right, 66 hectares and on the left, 68 hectares, which would not be touched if there were no water pumps,” said Prihasto in a written statement, Tuesday (23/ 4).
With a pump program like the one launched by the Ministry of Agriculture this year, he hopes that Pemalang Regency will be able to increase the planting index (IP). As is known, farmers in Comal District usually only harvest once a year.
“In accordance with the direction of the Minister of Agriculture in order to anticipate food emergencies, what was previously only IP-1, in the future it can be increased to at least 2, it can be embedded twice a year,” he said.
He also hopes that cooperation from various parties such as the District Agriculture Service, village officials and farmer groups can continue to be maintained so that food prices do not fluctuate due to the impact of a prolonged El Nino.
“The hope is that this will become a permanent system in rainfed land where the average IP will still be one or more than that,” added Prihasto.
On the same occasion, the Head of the Pemalang Regency Agricultural Service, Prayitno, on behalf of the farmers expressed his extraordinary thanks because this (pumping-ed) was very helpful for farmers in Kandang Village, Comal District.
“In this 321 hectare area, for the first planting, if the rain is not continuous, it will be difficult to be able to harvest. With this assistance, in the first planting, the IP 100 is guaranteed to be successful. Hopefully the dry season will not be long so that river water can be used as IP it might be 200, that’s the minimum for now,” he said. (Z-11)
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