Special measure planned to boost rice production

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Agriculture Sjarifudin Baharsjah said here yesterday that the government will take a special measure to minimize losses in rice production caused by the prolonged drought.

Speaking to reporters following a meeting with President Soeharto, Sjarifudin said that the measure would include speeding up the rice plantation in a bid to provide sufficient rice supply early next year.

"The measure is aimed at preparing sizable rice fields for harvest in January," he said.

Sjarifudin said that the measure, which will also include the use of underground water in dried areas, will be introduced in West, Central and East Java.

The measure will be part of the government's program to provide urea tablets in irrigated rice fields covering around 1.3 million hectares in Java's 25 regencies in the coming plantation season in attempt to optimize the rice harvest yields.

"If the urea tablets are timely used, the rice production can be increased by 600 kilograms to one ton per hectare," he said.

Sjarifudin said the President wanted all institutions involved in the urea tablet project such as fertilizer producers, the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Finance and cooperatives to closely cooperate in the supply of tablets.

He said that the government will provide special credit facilities to help farmers partly finance the urea tablets, which will be sold through village cooperatives.

The minister estimated that the drought will cause a drop in the country's rice production by around four percent to 46.2 million tons of unhusked rice or equivalent to around 30 million tons of husked rice.

Minister/State Secretary Moerdiono said earlier that the drought would slash the country's husked rice production to around 27.7 million tons, slightly above the country's total consumption of around 26.7 million tons of husked rice.

Despite the self-sufficiency, Indonesia still has to import rice to strengthen the supply. Indonesia recently imported about 400,000 tons of rice as the repayment of rice loans to Vietnam and several other neighboring countries.

Sjarifudin estimated that the use of urea tablets and the expansion of rice fields will raise the rice production by around six percent next year.(hen)