There Are 44.7 Thousand Hectares Of Rawa Land That Can Be Planted With Rice In Merauke

Photo archive - Minister of Agriculture Andi Amran Sulaiman. ANTARA/Harianto

The area of swampland that can be used for rice planting in Merauke Regency, South Papua Province, reaches 44,711 hectares (ha). This data was put forward by the Minister of Agriculture (Mentan) Andi Amran Sulaiman,

"The potential for optimizing swampland in Merauke Regency reaches 44,711 hectares," Amran said in a statement in Jakarta, reported by ANTARA, Saturday, June 1.

Amran said that the location was spread over seven main points, namely the Jagebob District covering an area of 5,060 hectares, Kurik District covering an area of 12,742 hectares, Malin District covering an area of 6,186 hectares, Merauke District covering an area of 1,686 hectares, Naukenjerai District 261 hectares, Semangga District covering an area of 7,027 hectares, and Land Tilting District covering an area of 11,746 hectares.

"While we are targeting 40,000 hectares in Merauke, we will gradually achieve this target by optimizing agricultural land and mechanization, so that plants that can only be increased once a year to 2-3 times a year," said Amran.

The Ministry of Agriculture has prepared Merauke Regency to become a wide-scale food provider through agricultural modernization through land optimization (Opla). Meanwhile, overall, Merauke Regency has the potential for agricultural land of 1.2 million hectares.

As of 2023, it has been utilized for the food crop and horticultural sectors covering an area of 67,612.49 hectares with a raw area of 42,328.42 hectares.

"The raw area of the rice fields is an average planting area of 63,000 hectares every year, the average planting index is 1.7," said the Minister of Agriculture.

Meanwhile, the Director General of Agricultural Infrastructure and Facilities (PSP) of the Ministry of Agriculture, Ali Jamil, explained that the activities to optimize swampland were running well and optimally, in addition to improving infrastructure from Opla activities, 330 units of alsintan were also allocated for 7 districts in Merauke Regency.

He detailed a 200-unit four-wheeled tractor (TR4), a 30-unit two-wheeled tractor (TR2), 80-unit water pumps, and 20 RT units.

He said that currently, land processing has been carried out in Ngguti Village Bob, Tanah Tilting District, Merauke Regency using alsintan which has been allocated.

"Activities include normalization of canals and land processing on ups and downs of swampland using TR4," said Ali.

Ali explained, in general the rice fields in Merauke use a mini polder system. This means that the rice fields are surrounded by embankments and barriers. As for water circulation using a pump.

"Pompanization is used during the rainy season to reduce inundation in rice fields, and in dry season it is used to fill water from secondary channels into rice fields," he explained.

In addition, he continued, some of the land in Merauke still has land that is IP100 due to water supply and accessibility is not available.

So one solution is, Ali added, by normalizing channels or placing large-capacity water pumps to accelerate water flow from intake and relays on channels that are far from intake.

"Likewise in the rainy season to accelerate the drainage from the rice fields to the sewers," concluded Ali.