Villagers Called Not To Burn Land

Pekanbaru, Riau, Nov 27 (Antara) - President Joko Widodo appealed to villagers in Kepulauan Meranti district in the Sumatran province on Thursday to not burn land when conducting clearing. He made the appeal when he met with thousand farmers in llagers in Sungai Tohor during his visit to the district which has recently suffered from massive forest and land fires causing air pollution that has affected neighboring countries Malaysia and Singapore. "Please do not burn when conducting land clearing as it may cause fires like what has happened recently," he said. On the occasion President Jokowi, as he is popularly called, expressed support to the development of sago plantation in the region. Kepulauan Meranti has long been known as being identical with sago because of its sago plantations that have mostly been developed from generation to generation covering more than 70,000 hectares. More than 67 small to medium-size sago processing plants have also been in existence in the district to meet local demand as well as exports to Japan, Thailand and Singapore. During the visit to the district President Jokowi also took an opportunity to visit one of the traditional processing plants, Basah Maju Jaya in Parit Ketat, Sungai Tohor. President Jokowi rode a water cab to reach the location attracting the attention of the villagers. At the plant President Jokowi was offered various kinds of traditional foods which are made of sago. After planting a sago tree President Jokowi said he would retunr to the region again five years later to harvest the tree. "I will come back here five years later. I will see if the tree that I plant could be harvested," he said drawing an applause from the villagers. President Jokowi has been in Riau province in the past two days to inspect conditions in the region which has often been razed by forest and land fires. On the first day of the visit President Jokowi made a strong warning for all parties to seriously overcome the fire problem that has remained in existence for the past 17 years. "No new solution will be offered to overcome the problem because everyone already knows what to do. No breakthrough is being offered as it is only about whether we have a will or not to settle it," he said here on Wednesday. President Jokowi returned to Jakarta on Thursday after visiting the Riau province which is his last leg of his tour of Sumatra regions that include Bengkulu and Lampung. Accompanied by First Lady Iriana and a number of cabinet members including environment and forestry minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar and minister/state secretary Pratikno arrived in Jakarta at 1pm.