Gov’t to Develop Food Estate Area in Central Kalimantan Province

Rehabilitation at Rawa Belanti, Central Kalimantan province. (Photo: Ministry of PUPR).

As part of the National Strategic Programs Year 2020-2024, Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing has announced it will designate a food estate area in Pulang Pisau regency in Central Kalimantan province to become a national food barn.

Minister of Public Works and Public Housing Basuki Hadimuljono said there is a potential alluvial area (not peat land) of 165,000 hectares on the Ex-Peatlands Development (PLG) land in the province.

“We will start working on this land from 2020 until 2022. We hope that in 2022, the area covering 165,000 hectares be optimized for production. This is the second national priority program after the development of 5 National Tourism Strategic Areas (KSPN) namely Lake Toba, Borobudur, Mandalika, Labuan Bajo and Manado-Likupang,” Basuki said, Tuesday (9/6).

According to him, the development of the food estate program will be carried out together with Ministry of SOEs through an investment scheme.

Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing, he added, will also develop basic facilities and infrastructure such as repairing irrigation channels, both secondary and primary, around the area, while Ministry of SOEs and Ministry of Agriculture will develop cultivation technology for planting to produce better production.

It is expected that 1 hectare of land can increase rice productivity by 2 tons, he added.

Of the 165,000 hectares of land, an area of 85,500 hectares is functional land that has been used for production every year, while the remaining 79,500 hectares are already in the form of shrubs so the Government will only proceed on land clearing.

Out of 85,500 hectares of the functional land, around 28,300 hectares are in good irrigation conditions, while other 57,200 hectares of other land are needed to rehabilitate irrigation channels with a total budget of Rp1.05 trillion needed.

“Every year we handle irrigation rehabilitation in the ex-PLG area,” Basuki, said, adding that  the rehabilitation will be carried out in stages starting from 2020-2022, including 1,210 hectares in 2020 covering, 33,335 hectares in 2021 and 22,655 hectares worth Rp497.2 billion in 2022.

Irrigation rehabilitation activities in the 2020 Budget Year include four physical activities, namely rehabilitation of 1,210 hectares with a budget of Rp26 billion and two planning activities covering an area of ​​164,595 hectares with a budget of Rp47 billion. (Ministry of PUPR/EN)

Translated by: Estu Widyamurti
Reviewed by: M. Ersan Pamungkas