Central Sulawesi To Open 1,730 hectares Of New Rice Fields

Palu, C Sulawesi, Sept 8 (Antara) - Central Sulawesi will open 1,730 hectares of new rice fields this year in a number of regencies in the province. Head of agricultural facilities and infrastructure division of the regional agriculture service Thamrin said the regency of Poso will open the largest part of 800 hectares. Other regencies to open new rice fields are Morowali 433 hectares, Banggai and Parigi Moutong each 250 hectares. Thamrin said the fund needed to open the new rice fields would be derived from the state budget. He said the fund would be sent to the account of groups of farmers in each of the regencies. "The farmers are involved directly in the program to open new rice fields and in planting," he said. Earlier the work to open new rice fields in the province was handled by contractors but now the work is handled by the groups of farmers, he said. The provincial and district agriculture services would be responsible in the use of the fund . Based on data at the Central Sulawesi Agriculture service , the province opened 1,000 hectares of new rice fields in 2010, 2,500 hectares in 2011, around 3,000 hectares in 2012, and 4,400 hectares in 2013. Planting would start immediately after the rice fields are ready, therefore , there would be no rice fields lying idle as was in previous years. Thamrin said. New rice fields are opened in areas where there is enough water for irrigation , he said. The opening of new rice fields is to support the food security program in the region as well in the country as a whole . The Central Sulawesi administration has set target for its production of un-hulled rice at 1.5 million tons for 2014.