Statement of President of the Republic of Indonesia during Rice Planting Session with Farmers, 30 November 2021, in Buluagung Village, Karangan District, Trenggalek Regency, East Java Province

Assalamu’alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh,

This afternoon, Minister of Agriculture, Minister of Public Works and Public Housing, Governor of East Java, Regent of Trenggalek, Regent of Bojonegoro, and I along with the farmers planted rice on a 75-hectare plot of land.

It is our expectation that the newly-inaugurated Tugu Dam can bring benefits. Earlier, the farmers told me that they can have two harvest seasons for rice and one for palawija [secondary crops]. With the construction of Tugu Dam, water will be channeled to people’s paddy field so you can have three harvest seasons and one palawija harvest. Thus, it will drastically increase productivity of paddy field in Trenggalek regency.

In total, crop yield of East Java province is amounted to 5.7 million tons and used to meet the needs of the province and to supply other provinces.

As we are aware, this year, up until today, we have not imported rice. In fact, we have adequate stock of rice.

I think such increase in farmers’ productivity is because of the dams which have just being built years before are in operation. It starts to show results that can be seen from the increase in farmers’ productivity which also contribute to the increase in national crop yield.

That concludes my statement on this auspicious occasion.

There are also some complaints from farmers, particularly the issue of fertilizer or agricultural crop production tools which will be discussed later in Jakarta. In addition, I order Minister of Agriculture to address the problems as soon as possible.

That concludes my statement.

I thank you. (RAS/MMB)