Coordinating Minister Zulhas: Abandoned Agriculture, Irrigation Managed By Local Government Is Not Involved

Coordinating Minister for Food Zulkifli Hasan (Photo: Doc. VOI)

Coordinating Minister for Food Affairs (Menko Pangan) Zulkifli Hasan said irrigation was one of the problems that needed to be resolved to achieve the target of food self-sufficiency. This is because poor irrigation causes reduced harvest.

The man who is familiarly called Zulhas said the problem of irrigation in the area was irregular. In fact, he said the area of irrigation also continued to decrease.

"This Irrigation (the problem) is not chaotic. The land continues to decrease and so on," he said at Sarasehan 100 Indonesian Economists, in Jakarta, Tuesday, December 3.

Zulhas said that so far the improvement of regional agricultural irrigation has been handed over to local governments for lengths ranging from 1,000 to 3,000 hectares (ha).

However, Zulhas assessed that many local governments do not care about improving irrigation. As a result, agriculture was abandoned.

"If it reaches 2,000-3,000 hectares, that's the governor's business. Well, the governor doesn't take care of irrigation. Because there are many other problems such as damaged roads. So it's abandoned," he said.

Therefore, he said he would prepare regulations so that the central government could work on improving agricultural irrigation in the regions.

"I just finished this, the center can build irrigation for 1,000 to 3,000 hectares, it's finished. The Presidential Decree is finished, it's neat. Maybe one, two weeks this can be signed," he explained.