Buru turned into rice fields

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)