Minister Of Agriculture Amran Ensures Agriculture In Merauke Is Modern And Able To Improve Farmer Welfare

Minister of Agriculture, Andi Amran Sulaiman. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Minister of Agriculture (Mentan) Andi Amran Sulaiman targets Merauke Regency in South Papua Province to become a modern agricultural pilot area that is able to reduce production costs and improve farmers' welfare indexes.

"Our dream going forward is to transform traditional agriculture towards modernism with the aim of improving farmers' welfare because we can reduce production costs by up to 60 percent," Amran said after reviewing the installation of pumping in Amunkay Village, Tanah Tilting District, Merauke Regency, quoted from Antara, Wednesday, April 17.

As a concrete step, the Minister of Agriculture said that the government is currently working on an area of 20 thousand hectares of the total targeted 500 thousand hectares in the South Papua region.

Amran is optimistic that this target will be achieved in the near future considering that the Plantation Index (IP) in Merauke is on average twice a season and can be increased to three times a season.

"God willing, we will work on the first thing, we have decided directly to work on 20 thousand hectares to optimize the land and we agree on the budget today and starting today we are working on it," said Amran.

Amran is optimistic that if this works well, then his party together with the local government will shift to manage 500 thousand hectares of the potential 1.2 million hectares in the area.

"We have beenrintis (since 2016-2017) with the Regent of 10 thousand hectares and succeeded, now it has been harvested," said Amran.

It's just that, said the Minister of Agriculture, the plant in the area is still not optimal because the water management is considered insufficient. Therefore, the pumping program in Merauke will be included so that farmers can plant during the dry season.

"Now we manage the water well. God willing, today we will increase the planting index, our target is three times. So the production can triple up using equipment," he said.

Amran said that within one week his party would hold 75 units of equipment such as four-wheeled tractors to be sent from Surabaya, then 40 units of pumps to support increased agricultural productivity in Merauke.

So that farmers can plant during the dry season. Then there are 10 units of combine developers and others. We have submitted everything so that Merauke can become a pilot," explained Amran.

He admitted that the Ministry of Agriculture continues to anticipate food emergency in Merauke Regency by implementing a pumping program for rice fields and dry land on an area of 45 thousand hectares and optimizing swampland and planting TUSIP gogo rice on an area of 1,050 hectares.

On that occasion, the Ministry of Agriculture provided pumpization assistance to Amunkay Village as many as two 8-inch pump units and a paralon pipe to pump water from the disposal channel.

"This pumping program is expected to optimize plants for at least up to two times in rice planting. The total government assistance for Merauke Regency reaches IDR 8.069 billion, which is outside the KUR administration of IDR 13.034 billion," Amran said.