Cultivated Rice Fields Widen By 1,448 Hectares In Bali

 Denpasar (Antara Bali) - Cultivated rice fields in Bali were  1,448 hectares wider in the planting season of September 2016  than in the October planting season in 2015.

Despite the conversion of  479 hectares of rice fields in 2014 and 2015, cultivated rice fields  have expanded in Bali this year, head of the Bali provincial food crop farming service Ida Bagus Wisnuardhana said here on Wednesday.

Ida Bagus said currently Bali has 80,067 hectares of rice fields and planting averaged 1.82 times a year.

He said rice planting is not fully intensive  with the expanding rice fields grown with  non rice crops reaching 21,719 hectares this year.

More than 21,700 hectares of rice fields  were grown with vegetables, flowers, melon  and tobacco. This year planting is also postponed over 18,000 hectares of rice fields on repairs of irrigation systems.

"Despite the success in expanding rice cultivation, the Agriculture Ministry wanted rice cultivation target to expand from 3,000 hectares to 5,000 hectares  in the October planting season," he said.

The expansion is to offset expected decline in the country's rice production in January 2017. Normally rice production dropped in January as grand harvest takes place  in March-April.

Based on data  from the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS), Bali's rice production this year is expected to exceed 600,000 tons, or 6,600 tons larger than last year.

"The production is against annual consumption of 500,000 tons. That means there would be a surplus of 100,000 tons.

"This is encouraging. According to a survey, per capita consumption of rice in Bali  would drop this year to less than 100 kilograms a year, far below the national average of 119 kilogram, Ida Bagus said.

He said the decline in rice consumption indicates that food diversification program is quite successful in Bali, adding dependence on rice as a source of carbohydrate  could be reduced. (WDY)