Indramayu regency to build Rice Center for farmers

Indramayu regency to build Rice Center for farmers

Nana Rukmana, The Jakarta Post, Indramayu

The Indramayu regental administration will build a Rice Center
this year to help improve rice quality and quantity, as well as
improving the living standards of the regency's 300,000 farmers.

Head of Indramayu regency's Agriculture Office, Kusnomo
Tamkani, said on Monday that the Rice Center would be built on 50
hectares land at a cost of around Rp 75 billion (US$7.9 million).

The administration is currently in the process of selecting a
location for the center, with a choice of between Widasari and
Jatibarang districts.

"The two districts are strategically located, and can be
reached from every direction. Moreover, Widasari and Jatibarang
are the main rice producing areas in Indramayu. We're still
analyzing the location, but we plan to start the center's
construction in the middle of this year," Kusnomo said.

The center was expected to improve living standards of the
regency's 300,000 farmers, and the quantity and quality of rice
from some 109,000 hectares of paddy in the regency.

Rice production from the regency ranges between 600,000 and
800,000 tones per year.

"The regency's production capacity is one of the biggest in
West Java, which makes Indramayu the province's main rice center.
We hope that after the Rice Center is built, farmers' living
standards, as well as rice quality and quantity, will improve,"
Kusnomo said.

The Rice Center will include a rice processing complex,
marketing center, farmers bank, as well as other supporting
facilities.

The Rp 75 billion fund for the construction of the center will
be allocated from the Indramayu regental budget, in addition to
the West Java provincial budget and the state budget.

"For land appropriation, the provincial administration has
provided Rp 2 billion. We will also ask the private sector to
assist in building the Rice Center," he said.

Once the Rice Center is completed, it is hoped that it will be
able to help in the marketing of Indramayu farmers' rice to other
areas, such as Jakarta and cities in Sumatra.

"Indramayu is one of the main rice suppliers to the Cipinang
rice market in Jakarta. But the farmers are always getting low
prices because there's so many thugs in Cipinang," Kusnomo said,
adding that so far, the farmers had also received orders to
supply rice to as far afield as Riau Islands province.

He predicted that other regencies, like Majalengka, Cirebon
and Subang, would also use the Rice Center once it is completed.

With its 109,000 hectares, Indramayu has the biggest farming
area in the province, followed by Karawang regency with 80,000
hectares, Subang regency with 62,000 hectares, Majalengka regency
with 60,000 hectares and Cirebon regency with 49,000 hectares.