Alarming, 3,500 Hectares Of Rice Fields In Central Kalimantan Failed To Harvest Due To Flooding

JAKARTA - Vice Chairman of the Dprd East Kotawaringin Regency, Central Kalimantan, Rudianur said he was very concerned about the disaster experienced by farmers lampuyang village District Teluk Sampit who failed to harvest due to thousands of hectares of rice planted submerged in floods.

"The temporary information submitted to us was about 3,500 hectares of rice fields that failed to harvest in Lampuyang Village. Floods soak local farmers' rice fields," rudianur said in Sampit, reported by Antara, Thursday, May 20.

As soon as he got the information about the flood, Rudianur went straight down to the location. He monitored flooded rice fields in a number of locations in the largest rice-producing village.

The Golkar Party politician also had a dialogue with the farmers he met while reviewing flooded rice fields. Farmers hope this incident gets the attention of the local government.

Rudianur asked the Agriculture Department to move quickly down to the location of the flooded rice fields. Evaluation should be conducted, especially related to water systems to improve water supply and efforts to prevent flooding.

He understands the conditions in the area because Teluk Sampit subdistrict is one of the districts represented or the electoral district. He was worried that this incident would affect rice production because Lampuyang Village is the largest rice barn in East Kotawaringin.

This incident is also certain to make farmers lose money. In fact, some farmers grow crops using limited capital, even reportedly some borrow from others with the promise of being paid during harvest.

"We ask the local government to also help farmers so that later they can return to farming after the flood is over and the growing season arrives. Farmers are in desperate need of the help of seedlings, fertilizers and others. The government is expected to intervene to help that," Rudianur said.

The head of Lampuyang Village, Muksin when contacted said, there had been five days of flooding in the village and the water was getting higher. He said that there are now dozens of houses flooded.

"If according to our monitoring in the field, approximately 3,500 hectares of rice that has not been harvested. So farmers' losses are estimated at Rp5 billion. This is the second flood from 10 years ago, fitting like this," Muksin said.