Agricom.id, JAKARTA – Most people of Indonesia eat rice. On the other words rice is the food that should be available in each house. In the pandemic that still hits the world, the government through ministry of agriculture always innovates to provide food and in good condition in each region.

Ministry of agriculture reported that the rice production nationally by the end of 2020 would be surplus still. It is predicted by the monthly production and consumption and also the available stocks.

But do we know what provinces are the highest rice producers? Indonesia as the agrarian country, the people should actually really know them.

General Director of Food Plantation, Ministry of Agriculture, Suwandi told that the rice production data in 2019 was from central bureau of statistic (CBS) the by using the method -  kerangka sampling area (KSA). The production numbers are got by conversing 57,3 percent of the paddy production.

“The increasing production in the 10 provinces surely happened for the synergy among ministry of agriculture and regional government with many sides. Ministry of agriculture has done breakthrough to increase the rice production, such as, the mechanism of agriculture, planting superior seeds, advantaging the swamps. In 2020, Minister of Agriculture, Syahrul Yasin Limpo (SYL) keeps optimizing the swamps and accelerating the planting,” Suwandi said in Jakarta, Monday (22/6/2020), as in the official statement to Agricom.id.

In the previous, Minister SYL told that ministry of agriculture has the strategies to provide food, namely the rice. To increase the production, his side has implemented the paddy planting acceleration in the second planting of 2020 for about 5,6 million hectares (ha), and optimized the swamps in Central Kalimantan.

“We would provide the input production, the infrastructure, and expand the new planting in the deficit regions,” he said.

Here are 10 ten provinces as the highest rice producers in 2019 based on the calculation of CBS using KSA method.

1. Central Java within the harvest areas reaching 1.678.479 ha; 9.655.653 tons of dry grain or equal to about 5.539.448 tons of rice.

2. East Java within harvest areas reaching 1.702.426 ha; 9.580.933,88 tons of dry grain or equal to about 5.496.581 tons of rice.

3. West Java within the harvest areas reaching 1.578.835 ha; 9.084.957 tons of dry grain or equal to 5.212.039 tons of rice.

4. South Sulawesi within the harvest areas reaching 1.010.188 ha; 5.054.166 tons of dry grain or equal to 2.899.575 tons of rice.

5. South Sumatera within the harvest areas reaching 539.316 ha; 2.603.396 tons of dry grain or equal to 1.493.568 tons of rice.

6. Lampung within the harvest areas reaching 464.103 ha; 2.164.089 tons of dry grain or equal to 1.241.538 tons of rice.

7. North Sumatera within the harvest areas reaching 413.141 ha; 2.078.901 tons or dry grain or equal to 1.192.665 tons of rice.

8. Aceh within the harvest areas reaching 310.012 ha; 1.714.437 tons or dry grain or equal to 983.572 tons of rice.

9. West Sumatera within the harvest areas reaching 311.671 ha; 1.482.996 tons of dry grain or equal to 850.794 tons of rice.

10. Banten within the harvest areas 303.731 ha; 1.470.503 tons or dry grain or equal to 843.627 tons of rice.

For information, the KSA of CBS noted that the production nationally in 2019 reached 31,31 million tons of rice and by the end of December 2019 the rice was surplus in the form of stocks reaching 5,90 million ton. (A2)