Bekasi to start using idle land

JAKARTA (JP): Bekasi regent Moch. Djamhari has approved for poor farmers to start cultivating 700 hectares of idle land belonging to property developers until the economic crisis is over.

Djamhari said Thursday that the project would begin on a 40- hectare of plot next Wednesday with soldiers from the Bekasi military district and farmers tilling the land and sowing seeds.

The next day, regency officials and 460 farmers will plant corn, soybeans and groundnuts on another 230-hectare plot of unused land, the regent said as reported by Antara.

The local administration has targeted that each beneficiary will get about 5,000 square meters of land to be planted with quick-growing crops.

Thousands of workers who have lost their jobs in Bekasi, one of West Java's main industrial areas, since the economic crisis began last July are expected to benefit from the state-sponsored program.