Banggai Islands Add New Planting Areas For Corn Production Of 10 Thousand Hectares

By : Wiyanto Dan Aldo Bella Putra | Saturday, September 01 2018 - 18:00 IWST

Tanaman jagung di Banggai
Tanaman jagung di Banggai

INDUSTRY.co.id - Banggai Kepulauan - Ministry of Agriculture (Ministry of Agriculture) through a special effort program (Upsus) and extensive cropping (LTT) targeting Corn planting in Banggai Kepulauan Regency (Bangkep), Central Sulawesi Province (Central Sulawesi) in August covering 10,663 ha. For this reason, the Ministry of Agriculture and the regional government are actively encouraging the addition of new planting areas (PATB) to increase corn production.

By utilizing lands that are overgrown with grass, shrubs and shrubs, farmers encourage the expansion of corn planting. We also use the land under the stands of coconut trees. It is expected to become a new planting area, and increase corn production, said Head of the Central Sulawesi Food and Horticulture Agency, Trie Iriany Lamkampeli when questioned on (08/31/2018).

Currently, corn production in Bangkep Regency continues to increase up to 120% from 170,203 tons of dry shelled (PK) in 2014 to 374,322 tons of PK in 2017. Until August 2018 the production of 2018 corn reaches 380,650 tons of PK, or a growth of 34.71% per year . Meanwhile, the harvested area increased from 41,647 ha in 2014 to 81,405 ha in 2018 with a growth of 24.86% per year.

Even so, the potential for corn production should still be greater because only a small portion of land is used as corn growing areas. If the land overgrown with shrubs and grass is used as productive land, it can be a new source of income for farmers. Extensive cropping combined with the application of corn productivity improvement technology will maximize this achievement, Trie said.

To intensify the opening of new land for this corn commodity, the government cooperates with farmer groups. One of them is the Kuakon Expo farmer group, Kuakon Village, Tinangkung Subdistrict, Bangkep Regency, which is enthusiastic and enthusiastic about planting 40 hectares of plantation land belonging to members of the group. This group utilizes the help of two four-wheel tractors and corn and saprotan seeds from the government to accelerate land preparation.

"We escort the farmers in the field and monitor the development of the planting area. The cost has now been transferred by the group to buy saprotan," said the Head of the Production of Food Crops and Horticulture, Bangkep District Agriculture Office Diandewinda N. Saleh.

The farmer group also utilizes the Land Map and Conformity made by researchers from the Ministry of Agriculture in 2017 at a scale of 1: 50,000 or operational scale. The map can be used for corn fields and other crops, namely rice (upland rice, lowland rice), soybeans, chili, shallots, sugar cane, oil palm and cocoa. To facilitate farmers, the map is also supported by a land management recommendation book.

"Thanks to the information obtained through the information map, farmers in Bangkep Regency managed to utilize the choppy soil texture that is very suitable for planting corn, so that it can provide hope for new income for farmer groups," said soil researcher Agricultural Research and Development Agency Ministry of Agriculture Yiyi Sulaeman and the person in charge of the Rice and Soybean (Pajale) LTT Upsus, Bangkep Regency, Morowali and North Morowali.

For the success of the addition of new land for agriculture, the Ministry of Agriculture has issued a Director General of Food Crop Decree No.48 / HK-310 / C / 5/2018, which includes 9 PATB land types that can be planted with dry land or corn or soybeans or their integration. Planting time is also adjusted to rainfall conditions.

Head of the Bangkep Regency Agriculture Service, Ramlawaty also stated that the central and provincial governments are serious about working on market access and encouraging exports. In fact, exporters, the private sector and the government have discussed to increase corn exports. "Corn exports have even been carried out several times directly from the port of Ampana at Tojo Una Una directly to the Philippines. The trend of corn exports from Central Sulawesi must continue to be encouraged," explained Ramlawaty.

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