Late rainy season affects planting

Late rainy season affects planting

SEMARANG, Central Java: The planting of rice and other crops
in Central Java during the 1997/1998 planting season will cover a
total area of 363,155 hectares, the head of local agriculture
services, Widodo Gondowerdoko, said here Saturday.

Rice planting intensification programs will stretch over
169,784 hectares, or 15.3 percent of the 1.05 million hectares of
the planned area, Widodo said.

He said that for corn and soybean, the figure was 193,371
hectares or 38.7 percent of 498,600 hectares.

The decrease in paddy and crop planting intensity is related
to the late rainy season which, in turn, caused delays in other
areas, he said as quoted by Antara.

"But I'm sure the food planting intensification program will
be fulfilled," he said. "The planting of rice and other crops in
several regions in Central Java was continuous, and moreover, we
have enough stocks of seeds."

Central Java paddy production as of November had reached 8.3
million tons from 1.5 million hectares of rice field, or 98.8 per
cent of 8.4 million tons of this year's rice production target,
he said. (mds)