Helping Indonesia keep its rice bowl full
Thursday, 2017/02/02 | 08:36:19
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IRRI Rice Today, Feb 1 2017 Grant Singleton and Reianne Quilloy
One of the biggest rice consumers in the world aims to develop a long-term strategy for rice self-sufficiency to meet the continuing increase in population.
Figure: Pak Subarjo proudly shares his field, which harvested its third cropping in January 2017. (Photo by Budi Raharjo, AIAT, Indonesia) Indonesia is the world’s fourth most populous country and one of the largest rice consumers. To feed the country, its present rice production of 75 million tons must increase by 2.3% per year through 2019. As the demand to produce more grains increases, the country has always depended on Java—where nearly 60% of the total rice production comes from—to fill the country’s rice bowls. Although the yields in Java are relatively high compared with those of other areas of Indonesia, the rice productions areas on the island are under pressure from urban and industrial development. Efforts to increase national production have led the government of Indonesia to craft a long-term strategy for rice self-sufficiency. A key pillar of this strategy is intensifying rice production on the outer islands, including South Sumatra. The government also developed a policy of GP-PTT (Gerakan Penerapan Pengelolaan Tanaman Terpadu or Implementation Action of Integrated Crop Management) to deploy best management practices in rice-farming communities. This created an opportunity in South Sumatra to forge collaboration between the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and the Assessment Institute of Agricultural Technologies (AIAT) through the Closing rice yield gaps with reduced environmental footprints (CORIGAP), a project funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). In the tidal deltas of South Sumatra, the two institutes are conducting validation of yield gaps to establish solutions that will help farmers sustainably intensify their rice production. “CORIGAP is fully in line with Indonesia’s national program,” says Dr. Hasil Sembiring, director general of the Directorate of Food Crops in Indonesia. “Due to increasing population and demand for rice, innovation in CORIGAP is needed to increase rice productivity in Indonesia. Thus, we appreciate any innovation introduced to increase our rice production. This year, South Sumatra contributes about 1 million tons of rice.” See more: http://ricetoday.irri.org/helping-indonesia-keep-its-rice-bowl-full/
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