Kudus Proposes Seed Assistance For 444 Sawah Hectares To Face El Nino

A number of farmers in Undaan District, Kudus Regency, Central Java have started harvesting nursery plants to be planted on pre-prepared land. BETWEEN ANTARA/Akhmad Nazaruddin Lathif

KUDUS - The Agriculture and Food Service of Kudus Regency, Central Java proposed the assistance of rice plant seeds to the central government for an area of 444 hectares to deal with the impact of the El Nino phenomenon and reduce the burden on farmers.

"Hundreds of hectares of proposed rice fields are scattered in Undaan, Jekulo, Kaliwungu, and Mejobo sub-districts," said Head of Food Crops and Plantation at the Kudus Agriculture and Food Service, Agus Setiawan, as reported by ANTARA, Thursday, September 14.

Later, he said, every hectare of farmers' rice fields will receive 25 kilograms of rice seeds.

He hopes that the assistance of the rice seeds can ease the burden on farmers in facing the dry season as it is now.

To get irrigation water, he said, farmers do have to spend extra costs because there are those who have to take it using a pump machine and some use deep wells at several points in the rice fields.

With the assistance of seeds, it is hoped that the target area of planting rice plants during 2023 covering an area of 26,338 hectares spread across nine sub-districts can be achieved. Meanwhile, the planting area in September 2023 is around 293 hectares.

"We estimate that the area of planting will increase, because in the near future the start of the first planting season will begin," he also said.

Regarding the availability of fertilizers, his party will also coordinate with the Central Java Provincial Government to ensure the availability of subsidized fertilizers.

If it is not available enough, farmers are asked to start using organic fertilizer because some farmers have tried and received satisfactory results.