Special measure planned to boost rice production

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)