East Kalimantan Provincial Government Prepares 10 Thousand Hectare Food Estate For IKN, Spread In These 3 Regions

Head of the East Kalimantan Department of Food, Crops and Horticulture (DPTPH) Siti Farisyah Yana. ANTARA/HO-Humas East Kalimantan Provincial Government

SAMARINDA - The Provincial Government of East Kalimantan has prepared an integrated food development area or food estate with an area of about 10 thousand hectares to welcome thousands of people who will live around the Indonesian Capital City (IKN).

Head of the East Kalimantan Food, Crops and Horticulture Service (DPTPH), Siti Farisyah Yana, said that the food estate area is spread over 1,154 hectares in Paser Regency, 8,028 hectares in Kutai Kartanegara and 1,500 hectares in North Penajam Paser.

"In the early stages, the food estate area prepared is around 10 thousand hectares and will continue to be expanded until the threshold is sufficient to fulfill food for the people of East Kalimantan and IKN," said Siti Farisyah in Samarinda, Antara, Wednesday, August 24.

Apart from the three North Penajam Paser, Paser and Kutai Kartanegara areas, a number of other locations in East Kalimantan are still wide open for the development of food estate areas such as East Kutai, West Kutai and Berau.

"We have been preparing this food estate area since 2019," said Yana, her nickname.

Yana emphasized that the East Kalimantan Provincial Government is very serious in realizing this food estate, because the land that has been prepared has been calculated so that the agricultural program produces maximum harvests.

"In this food estate program, we will also help with cropping patterns and post-harvest marketing," he added.

Yana admits that the geographical condition of East Kalimantan is different from other regions in Indonesia, because East Kalimantan has a very large expanse of land, so it has to do point by point checks that allow it to be used as a food estate location.

"Those locations (food estate points) have been put together into an integrated unit," he said.

It also continues to socialize to the community and farmers to support this food estate program so that it can run optimally.

"We are trying to stop the rate of land conversion, and hope that there will be more food estate locations from other regencies and cities," said Siti Farisyah Yana.

In addition to the development of the Food Estate, currently DPTPH Kaltim continues to strive to increase agricultural productivity, especially rice by opening new rice fields, providing assistance with superior seeds, fertilizers and agricultural equipment.

"In addition to helping with agricultural tools, we also continue to strive to increase agricultural facilities, by making agricultural irrigation. This is done so that farmers are no longer dependent on rainwater. With irrigation, of course, farmers can freely work on their fields," Yana explained.