President Jokowi Inspects Pumping System in S. Lampung, Encourages Agricultural Productivity

President Jokowi inspects the program for providing pumps for irrigation of rice fields and agriculture, known as “pompanisasi,” in Bandan Hurip Village, South Lampung Regency, Lampung Province on Thursday (07/11). (Source: BPMI Setpres/Vico)

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo inspected the program for providing pumps for irrigation of rice fields and agriculture, known as the “pompanisasi,” in Bandan Hurip Village, South Lampung regency, Lampung province on Thursday (07/11). This program is part of the Government’s efforts to anticipate the potential for prolonged drought occurring in various agricultural areas in Indonesia.

“This pompanisasi is to anticipate if there is a long drought, heat waves, and we must get prepared so that farmers’ productivity and our rice production do not decrease because now all countries are experiencing decreased production due to heat waves and prolonged droughts,” said the President to the media after the inspection.

Based on his observations, President Jokowi stated that the village’s irrigation system is already good. However, pompanisasi is still needed to channel water from sources lower than the rice fields.

“I see that here, the irrigation is good. We draw the water from lower irrigation to enter the secondary, tertiary irrigation, so it can flow to the rice fields. We hope that what usually produces one harvest can become two, and what already has two harvests can become three,” he explained.

For the record, the total area of rice fields in South Lampung regency is 38,688 hectares. Of that area, the potential rain-fed rice fields reach 30,976 hectares.

The Government has distributed 150 pumps to South Lampung regency out of a total of 2,606 pumps for Lampung province alone. These 150 pumps are expected to meet the irrigation needs for 1,650 hectares of rice fields.

The pompanisasi initiative is one of the Government’s concrete steps in addressing the problems facing farmers in the country, as well as supporting efforts to increase local and national food production, especially in the face of the increasingly real challenges of climate change. (BPMI/ABD) (AS/MUR)