TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Agriculture Minister Syahrul Yasin Limpo said that the national rice harvest period had begun and was conducted in stages, and the peak of harvest would take place from March to April 2023.

"As mentioned by Mr. President (Joko Widodo), one million hectares have been harvested from this February, and in March we will harvest from 1.9 million hectares," Minister Limpo said during his working visit to Sigi district, Central Sulawesi, on Sunday.

He expected for this harvest season to produce sufficient stock that could meet the demands during Muslim holy month of Ramadan and Eid festival of 2023.

He acknowledged that farmers need to be given stimulus by the government so they could perform better, leading to greater productivity and improvement of the national agriculture sector as a whole.

"We urge farmers to use the means of accessibility proffered by the government, one of them is the people's business credit scheme in the agriculture," he reminded.

The program was the government's efforts to facilitate the farmers, so they would have capital to support their productivity, he stated.

On the occasion, he named Central Sulawesi as one area which had contributed to the central government's efforts to form national food resilience.

Citing Statistics Indonesia's data, Limpo said there was some 31.66 million tons of domestic stock of rice.

He disclosed that he made the visit to ensure that the actual stock was in accordance with what the data mentioned. Based on his observation, the supply is as reported, he added.

The improvement in food production is also influenced by the Planting Index 400 (IP400) program adopted by the farmers, according to him.

There are 7.4 million hectares of crop lands in Indonesia; however, this year, there are as much as 10 million hectares worth of rice being cultivated, with average production of five to six tonnes per hectare.

"Failed harvests due to bugs or natural disasters does not exceed 50,000 hectares of 7.4 million hectares of croplands in Indonesia," he added.

During his visit, the minister and regional officials of Sigi District also did some rice harvesting.

ANTARA

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