Sidoarjo, East Java (ANTARA) - Coordinating Minister for Food Affairs, Zulkifli Hasan, has informed that one of the government's main priorities is to improve and repair irrigation systems in East Java.
Currently, the irrigation situation in East Java province is still not regarded as good as it should be, he noted here on Tuesday.
“The government will rehabilitate the irrigation system for the 150 thousand hectares of agricultural land in East Java,” Hasan said.
During his visit to Sidoarjo, he stressed that the irrigation rehabilitation program will focus on lands owned by farmers who can only harvest crops once a year.
Hasan emphasized that the step will be taken to deal with the problem of unequal water supply in several parts of East Java.
According to him, in some areas, the water supply is extremely low during the dry season, which means farmers do not get to plant crops under ideal conditions.
However, in the rainy season, some areas get flooded easily, and this causes damage to local agricultural lands.
Therefore, he said that the government is focusing on handling the unstable water supply so that farmers can make the best use of the crop planting period throughout the year.
“Hopefully, (irrigation system) rehabilitation can solve the unstable water supply problem in East Java,” Hasan said.
President Prabowo Subianto’s administration is determined to help the country once again attain food self-sufficiency by 2027.
Therefore, the Coordinating Ministry for Food Affairs has been striving to drive the development and revitalization of irrigation areas in promising regions across Indonesia.
