Agricom.id, CENTRAL KALIMANTAN - Watinah (39) is very happy because her plantings would be potentially producing 6 tons per hectare. The numbers are more than her previous planting or before the government did intervention through the long- term program called food estate in District of Pulang Pisau, Central Kalimantan.

"Food estate program has changed the way we farm or from the old habits to be new model. Alhamdulillah, the harvest could be 6 tons per hectare," Watinah said in food estate Blok B, Village of Gadabung, Pulang Pisau, Thursday (4/2/2021), as in the official statement to Agricom.id.

She thought that food estate program would have the bigger potential and chances namely to increase the farmers’ welfare. It is known from the numbers of production and the technology or mechanism usages.

“There would be bigger chance because we planted superior seeds,” she said.

She also mentioned that she and her husband cultivate 7 hectares of paddy field and 1 hectares of plantation. They do it by machines, such as, combine harvester and others.

“We planted hybrid but when cultivating the fields, we use sophisticated tools,” Watinah mentioned.

Knowing this, Head of Balai Pengkajian Teknologi Pertanian Central Kalimantan Province, Syamsuddin said that food estate is cultivated with technology. The information system to monitor the crops, weather that Ministry of Agriculture uses, directly connects with Agricultural War Room (AWR) and Komando Strategi Pembangunan Pertanian (Kostratani).

"Alhamdulillah, when we saw the database before the program started, the production just reached 3,5 – 4 tons. But after intervention, the average results could be 5 to 6 tons. In general, the result would be good,” he said.

Syamsuddin also mentioned, more farmers around food estate are interesting to use agricultural tools. It is not questioned that many have the tools and park in their yards in Belanti Siam and Gedabung.

“It is glad to know that they bought the tools themselves. Some got from the credit in kredit usaha rakyat (KUR) and some directly bought the tools. This means, modern and developed agriculture is adapted here well,” he said.

About the food estate which develops fast, Head of Horticulture and Livestock Central Kalimantan, Sunarti thanked the support from the central government, namely Ministry of Agriculture which keeps developing and helping the farmers to produce.

“We would keep always developing the farmers to cultivate in modern ways, for instance, there would be spreading seeds manually because it would have something with the growth,” she said.  (A2)