Agricom.id, JAKARTA – Ministry of Agriculture appreciated District of Bekasi which tries to maintain 48.000 hectares of food agriculture areas. In this year, the district would continue to discuss the draft of regional regulation about Lahan Pertanian Pangan Berkelanjutan (LP2B).

Minister of Agriculture, Syahrul Yasin Limpo emphasized that the biggest threat in agriculture is the land use change of agriculture areas.

“The land use change makes the agriculture areas narrower. Of course, there would be lack of productivity. If it is not prevented, this would make us lack of food. That is why ministry of agriculture hoped that the areas could be protected and maintained,” he said, Sunday (02/08/2020) as in the official written statement to Agricom.id.

District of Bekasi has 57.511 hectares of paddy field based on the Decision of Minister of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial/Head of National Land Agency No. 686/SK-PG.03.03/XII/2019. It is hoped that the numbers could be regulated as LP2B and regulated in the regional regulation of District of Bekasi.

“We need to notice the decision of LP2B to protect of food areas. The process to publish LP2B should be un-separated part of LP2B and every system could run together to maintain our food,” he said.

General Director of Agriculture Infrastructure, Ministry of Agriculture, Sarwo Edhy said the same. He thought that the regional government has its authority to prevent the land use change.

“We would coordinate and support the regional governments to prevent the land use change. They have to be the first to do it,” he said.

He also mentioned that the regional government should actively prevent it because there has been regulation about it, that is, President’s Regulation No. 59 / 2019 about the Paddy Field Land Function Control.

In the previous, Regent of Bekasi, Eka Supria Atmaja said that in this year, Bekasi would continue discussing the draft of regional regulation about the Sustainable Food Agriculture Areas. He thought that it was postponed because of the different area data and spatial locally.

“We have the strong power to maintain our agriculture areas. I communicated with the legislators. We would finish the discussion,” he said.

He also told that it needs to regulate the agriculture areas to maintain the existing areas not to be the industrial region or housing.

“District of Bekasi promises to maintain 48.000 hectares of the sustainable food agriculture areas. This would automatically maintain the food security. We have to make sure that our food security runs well and could fulfill the people’s needs,” he said.

He also urged the plantation agency to develop and educate the farmers about the modern agriculture and hoped that they could advantage the technology to increase their production. (A2)