Jakarta (Indonesia Window) – The Indonesian government expects that the construction of irrigation and land processing in the national food estate areas in Central Kalimantan province will be completed in early October, so that the planting program can be started between October 2020 and March 2021.

Minister of Public Works and Housing Basuki Hadimuljono at a press conference here on Tuesday (Sep 1) stated that there are two plants that will be planted in the food estate, namely, paddy and cassava.

Paddy will be planted in alluvial lands of 165,000 hectares under the Ministry of Agriculture as the leading sector.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defense will be the leading sector of the cassava plantation and development of 60,000 hectares of land.

In working on the national food estate project, the Ministry of Public Works and Housing in synergy with some ministries and a state body, namely, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Stated-owned Enterprises, and the Presidential Staff Office.

The national food estate area is located in Pandih Batu sub district, Pulang Pisau district, about 147.4 kilometers from Central Kalimantan’s capital city of Palangka Raya.

The lands for food estate used to be a peatland development project area during President Soeharto era in 1995.

The food estate in Central Kalimantan is expected to become a new national food estate outside Java, and become one of the 2020-2024 National Strategic Programs.

The Indonesian Central Bureau of Statistics noted that the area of ​​paddy fields in Indonesia continues to decline due to land conversion.

Data in 2018 showed that paddy fields covered an area of 7.1 million hectares, down from 7.75 million hectares in the previous year.

The food estate is expected to extend the area of ​​paddy fields in the archipelagic country, and increase the national food production.

Reporting by Indonesia Window