Farmland Conversion More Critical
Friday, 05 January, 2007 | 15:53 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: Today, farmland conversion is becoming more critical. The situation is worrying to make target achievement of national rice production increase by five percent per year . Therefore, regional governments must issue a regulation for suspending the land conversion.

Director General of Food at the Department of Agriculture Sutarto Alimoeso said that head of regional governments has a strategic role in halting the land conversion rate. “The reason is that they are the ones who regulate layout in the regions,” he said yesterday (01/04) in Jakarta.

Regional head, said Sutarto, should grant some incentives to farmers who do not sell their paddy fields. The incentives may take the form of high tax for abandoned land and low tax for cultivated land. The National Land Board should also accomplish the process of land certification so that the status of land will be clearer.

The Department of Agriculture, he said, is attempting to boost new paddy field clearing. The policy will be implemented by developing 15 million hectares of perennial paddy fields. It will be carried out within the next three years.

Ewo Raswa