Breadfruit (malangkota.go.id) – The Malang City Government continues to encourage increased agricultural productivity as one of the steps to realize food security. This was also seen when the Mayor of Malang, Wahyu Hidayat, together with the ranks of the Malang City Forkopimda and related parties, carried out simultaneous rice planting on the land of the Sri Murni Farmers Group, Lowokdoro, Gadang Village, Sukun District, Malang City, Wednesday (23/4/2025). This activity is a series of national agendas for the Simultaneous Rice Planting Movement in 14 Provinces throughout Indonesia which was attended by the Mayor of Malang online.
Malang Mayor Wahyu Hidayat said that the Kebonsari Sub-district area borders directly with Malang Regency. "Here the agricultural potential is very high, with a land area of 24 hectares. While overall, the Sukun District area has a land area of 148 hectares," he explained.
The Mayor said that the average harvest in Malang City reached around eight tons per hectare. Coupled with the competitive selling price of grain, which is Rp6.700 per kilogram at the farmer level. This price is higher than the national average of around Rp6.500 per kilogram. "This also makes farmers more enthusiastic, which of course has an impact on maintaining food security," said the number one person in the Malang City Government.
To support agricultural productivity in Malang City and as a form of support for farmers, the Malang City Government also continues to distribute various assistance such as subsidized fertilizers, superior rice and corn seeds, and agricultural tools and machinery (alsintan).
Meanwhile, the Head of the Malang City Food Security and Agriculture Service (Dispangtan), Slamet Husnan Hariyadi, explained that the superior seeds used have a much shorter planting period. One of them is BK rice seeds from Situbondo which can be harvested in 75 days, compared to ordinary seeds which require up to 102 days. "With a shorter planting period, farmers can harvest faster and have the potential to harvest up to three times a year," explained Slamet.
Dispangtan is also studying the use of drone technology for seed spreading which can speed up the planting process. If manual planting takes up to 25 days for three hectares of land, with drones the process can be completed in one day. "We continue to look for ways to make the planting process more efficient and effective. Drones are one of the solutions we are currently testing," he added.
In addition, Husnan said that his party will currently continue to coordinate with the Regional Financial and Asset Management Agency (BPKAD) to maximize the utilization of assets in the form of government-owned rice fields so that they can be processed into productive rice fields. "In the future, the utilization of agricultural machinery will also be optimized starting from land processing, planting, to harvesting. We want the three-times-a-year harvest in Malang City to really be realized," concluded Slamet. (cah/yn)
