Cianjur Farmers Asked To Plant Rice Faster To Avoid The Dry Season

Agricultural land in Nagrak Village, Cianjur District, Cianjur Regency, West Java, was planted early as an effort to anticipate the occurrence of a long dry season which is expected to occur in July-August. (ANTARA

CIANJUR - Department of Agriculture, Food Plantation and Holticulture (DP3H) Cianjur Regency, West Java, asked farmers in a number of agricultural areas in Cianjur to plant rice more quickly as an effort to avoid the dry season. Head of the Cianjur DP3H Food Crop Production Division, Dandan Hendayana, said that every year the dry season will occur in July-August 2023. It is recorded that of 52 thousand hectares of agricultural land in Cianjur, about 8,000 hectares of which are threatened with drought. "Based on the usual drought forecast, farmers must plant quickly so that there is no decrease in production figures. Including asking farmers to harvest at the optimal age in order to anticipate crop failure, especially in the southern region," he said when contacted, Antara, Sunday, June 18. Entering this year's dry season, his party is intensifying the socialization of the accelerated planting schedule for farmers in a number of sub-districts that are the barns for Cianjur rice, such as Karangtengah, Sukaluyu, Warungkondang and Cianjur sub-districts. Based on the calculations so far, farmers should have planted rice in May-June to save the age of planting for more than 60 days, so that when the dry season the rice plant has passed the vegetative phase. "After going through the vegetative phase, rice plants do not really need water, various education is given to farmers so that by the end of June all must have planted," he said. To anticipate more quickly, agricultural instructors have been carried out in the southern region which is a regular drought, because there are many rain fields, especially the BMKG estimate for this year's dry season will take longer. Meanwhile, other efforts are taking various anticipatory steps despite the occurrence of El Nino or the new long dry season, it is estimated because the last few days it has still rained in a number of areas in Cianjur, including in the southern region. "Our hope is that the same as farmers, the long dry season does not occur, but various anticipatory efforts have been made so that 52 thousand hectares of agricultural land continue to produce maximum rice production," he said.