Press Statement of President of the Republic of Indonesia during the Inspection of Food Estate Development in Belanti Siam Village, Pandih Batu District, Pulang Pisau Regency, Central Kalimantan Province, Thursday, 8 October 2020
Today, I revisit Central Kalimantan Province, especially Pulang Pisau Regency, where we want to ensure the start of a food estate in the location for all of 168,000 (hectares) will be planted with rice. In Pulang Pisau, we want to start in 2020, we will develop 10,000 hectares of land. While in Kapuas Regency, we will work on 20,000 hectares of land. So, the total in Central Kalimantan Province for 2020 is 30,000 hectares.
As we can see here, for example, we use drones for spraying fertilizers, use floating tractors to plow the fields, this is a special tractor. I asked earlier, how many hectares could it be done in one day, the tractor operator said it could be two hectares. And, this is an acceleration of speed because what we are going to work on is a very wide expanse, we need mechanization of modern tools to make sure of the speed.
We are also here to combine rice fields, we will plant rice, then on the edge, we will plant oranges, then on the other edge, on this side there are shallots, there are coconuts. We hope that this does not only produce rice, but there will be oranges and coconut, as well as shallots, this is what we expect. Because the water is abundant, in every existing irrigation, we also try to cultivate cage fishes. We will see the results in might be 3-4 months.
With these methods, we hope that farmers’ income will increase. Not only from rice but also from oranges, shallots, coconut, fish, and ducks. We will try this combination of business model beforehand and after we see good results, successful results, we will replicate it in other places. There will be some business models to be developed per 1,000 hectares of land.
This concludes my statement in this good opportunity. We should be grateful that in Pulang Pisau (Regency), in Kapuas Regency, the land is flat, the water is abundant, the land is fertile, so it is a shame if these are not used for productive purposes.
I conclude this statement.
Thank you.
Translated by Fairuzzamani Inayatillah
Reviewed by Mia Medyana B