Jakarta. The government is nearing its halfway point for its rice paddy expansion target that it has set for 2024. 

The Agricultural Ministry is seeking to expand the rice paddy by 1.78 million hectares this year. Opening new rice paddy fields comes as Indonesia’s strategy to secure enough supply of its staple food.

The ministry recently announced that it had added 778,422 hectares of rice paddy fields, meaning that the government has achieved 44.35 percent of the target. In Central Java alone, the government has expanded the province’s rice paddy fields by 171,000 hectares. This is equivalent to 68 percent of the province’s target. 

The government is also trying to install more water pumps to boost rice production. The Agricultural Ministry has even set up a task force for this pump installation. According to Agricultural Deputy Minister Sudaryono, the rice paddy expansion, alongside the water pump program, is set to help Indonesia meet its food demand. There is also a possibility that Indonesia might export its rice if the country can far exceed its production target.

“The water pump installation program as part of the paddy expansion will help significantly increase our production. So we can produce enough rice for the people and the farmers’  prosperity,” Sudaryono recently said.

Sudaryono also warned against the looming food crisis that could affect countries across the globe, thus prompting the need to ramp up production.