Klojen (malangkota.go.id) – To anticipate the increasingly limited agricultural land in Malang City, the government has made a policy to control the conversion of rice fields. Head of the Malang City Food Security and Agriculture Service (Dispangtan) Slamet Husnan Hariyadi said that currently the agricultural land in Malang City planted with rice is 803 hectares.
"In the RTRW (Regional Spatial Planning Plan), it has been bound to the protected rice field area, which is around 400 hectares that cannot be converted and are spread across the Kedungkandang, Sukun, and Lowokwaru Districts," said Slamet after the opening of the Agricultural Technology Exhibition and Agricultural Product Exhibition in the yard of the Mini Block Office, Malang City Hall, Monday (6/3/2023).
Furthermore, Slamet said that from 803 hectares of rice fields, currently producing around 15 thousand tons of rice per year. While the needs of Malang City are around 65 thousand tons per year. Therefore, a number of innovations must be able to be done with the increasingly minimal availability of land in Malang City.
To meet these needs, Dispangtan collaborates with Bulog and cooperates between regions, especially areas around Malang City. "To increase rice production, there is the provision of facilities for farmers such as hand tractors, cultivators, subsidized fertilizers, and the provision of other infrastructure, such as nets, rat poison, pesticides, including seeds," he explained.
Malang Mayor Drs. H. Sutiaji also emphasized that there has been a policy to protect agricultural land in Malang City. "In our RTRW, there is already LSD (Protected Rice Fields). It cannot be converted, so there also needs to be subsidies such as agricultural equipment and fertilizers. So that farmers are not forced to farm but their welfare is not considered," said the number one person in the Malang City Government.
LSD is proof of the government's seriousness in protecting rice fields. Presidential Regulation of the Republic of Indonesia Number 59 of 2019 concerning Control of Conversion of Rice Fields is the legal basis used with the aim of accelerating the determination of protected rice field maps in order to meet and maintain the availability of rice fields to support national food needs, controlling the increasingly rapid conversion of rice fields, empowering farmers not to convert rice fields and providing data and information on rice fields for the determination of Sustainable Food Agricultural Land (LP2B). (ari/yon)
