Peat land project facing irrigation problems

Peat land project facing irrigation problems

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Public Works Radinal Moochtar
disclosed that the one-million-hectare agricultural megaproject
in Central Kalimantan is facing irrigation problems.

Radinal said in the provincial capital Palangka Raya that an
adequate irrigation system is difficult to build because the land
surface in some places is very high, making the construction of
irrigation dams not only technically complicated but also
expensive.

"The places which are too high to irrigate are not that large
in size and we're going to solve the problem step by step,"
Radinal was quoted by Antara as saying Thursday during his visit
to the project with several other cabinet ministers.

The government is considering earmarking the high lands for
non-agricultural projects, such as residential complexes for
farmers, Radinal said.

There are three major rivers that cross the project area,
namely the Kapuas, Barito and Kahayan.

The megaproject, launched in February, involves converting one
million hectares of peat land in the Kapuas regency into 638,000
hectares of rice fields. The remaining 362,000 hectares are to be
used for horticulture, plantations, conservation areas, housing
and reservoirs.

Converting the peat moss area into agricultural land is meant
to compensate for the shrinking agricultural areas in Java caused
by the rapid development of housing complexes, industrial areas
and highways over the past 10 years.

The one-million-hectare peat moss project has been dubbed the
most expensive development project this year; its cost is
estimated at about Rp 5 billion (US$2.1 million). To convert a
hectare of peat land into agricultural land costs about Rp 5
million.

The government has already spent some Rp 527.2 billion
building the required infrastructure.

Minister of Transmigration Siswono Yudohusodo told reporters
after meeting with President Soeharto at Merdeka Palace yesterday
that the project is intended for poor farmers.

Local people already moved to the general area from Java under
the state-sponsored transmigration program are not eligible to
own land in the project area if they are already better off than
they were previously, Siswono said.

He told the local administration to select the prospective
resettlers of the megaproject carefully.

Siswono said that of the 316,000 families who will be
resettled in the project area, the first 50 will arrive next
week. By March 1997, a total of 3,000 families will be farming in
the project area, he said.

"Among the 3,000 families, 60 percent of them are native
people," Siswono said.

Meanwhile, State Minister of National Development Planning and
Chairman of the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas)
Ginandjar Kartasasmita said that the local natives will have
priority to benefit from the project.

"We will make sure that natives benefit from the project
before outsiders are brought in," Ginandjar said in Palangka
Raya.

Ginandjar acknowledged that the placement of farmers in the
project area has lagged behind the infrastructure's development.
(ste)