Buru turned into rice fields

AMBON, Maluku: The provincial government plans to open 800 hectares of ricefields on Buru, a small island once used to imprison suspected communists.

Mangantar Simatupang, head of the island's irrigation project, said yesterday that the ricefields are expected to help materialize Maluku's ambition to become one of Indonesia's main rice producers.

Buru, which is part of the state-sponsored transmigration program, is fertile and has sold a large amount of rice to the state logistics agency.

Simatupang said Bulog has bought more than 1,450 tons of rice since 1991.

He said his office would build a number of irrigation networks to support the plan, Antara reported.

The existing irrigation systems, which use groundwater, cover some 599 hectares of paddy fields. (pan)