Lampung Provincial Government Provides 110 Hectares To Anticipate Drought Impact Of El Nino

Head of the Lampung Province Food Security, Food Crops and Horticulture Office Bani Ispriyanto (ANTARA)

BANDARLAMPUNG - Lampung Provincial Government (Pemprov) provides 110 thousand hectares (ha) of agricultural land that continues to produce in anticipation of drought due to the El Nino phenomenon.

"According to the central government's request to Lampung to become a food buffer area to anticipate the impact of the El Nino phenomenon, we have prepared 110 thousand hectares of agricultural land in 15 regencies and cities," said Head of the Lampung Province Food Security, Food Crops and Horticulture Office, Bani Ispriyanto, quoted by ANTARA, Monday, August 7.

He said that 110 thousand hectares of agricultural land were divided into two types of use, of which 36 thousand hectares were prepared for the implementation of the national rice planting movement in order to anticipate the impact of El Nino.

"Meanwhile, another 74 thousand hectares have been planted with rice last July because we are taking advantage of the rain that is still happening here," he said.

He continued that currently his party is mapping agricultural land based on Poligon, to reach the coordinate point and then proposed to the Ministry of Agriculture (Kementan).

"After it is confirmed that the coordinates of the agricultural land will also be proposed for seed assistance to the Ministry of Agriculture. Currently, the varieties for the rice used are those that are drought resistant, such as the elephant, and those that have been used by the community are Inpari," he added.

According to him, the distribution of 36 thousand hectares of agricultural land to be used in the national rice planting movement is spread across six districts in Lampung Province.

The six districts whose agricultural land will be used as rice planting areas simultaneously in an effort to anticipate El Nino are in East Lampung, Central Lampung, Tanggamus, Tulang Bawang, South Lampung and Waykanan regencies.

It is known that the Minister of Agriculture Syahrul Yasin Limpo during his working visit to Lampung Province on Wednesday (2/8) asked Lampung to participate in contributing to meeting national food needs in order to deal with the El Nino climate phenomenon.

Because Lampung Province is one of the areas designated as food support in dealing with El Nino along with the Provinces of West Java, East Java, South Sumatra and South Sulawesi.

In an effort to anticipate the impact of El Nino, the regions were also asked to map dry-prone areas into red, yellow and green areas, carry out a 1,000 hectare planting movement per district, use of organic fertilizers in a centralized and independent manner, biosaka, to maximization of cultivation and water-efficient.