goodmorningpapua.com – The Rendengan season rice harvest in the SP 8 area, Tanah Miring District, Merauke Regency, Papua has experienced a decline. This condition caused the farmers to get loss earlier this year.
Whereas the previous year’s Rendengan harvest could reach 100 sacks of dry grain per hectare. Meanwhile this year’s harvest, farmers in the food center only produce 30 sacks of dry grain per hectare.
“This time, our harvest was destroyed. That’s because of the weather,” said Parjo, a farmer from SP 8, Tanah Miring District, Merauke Regency, Papua to KabarPapua.co, Wednesday 6 April 2022.
Parjo admitted that he worked on 10 hectares of agricultural land himself, 2 hectares failed to harvest, while the other 8 hectares could still be harvested but the results were not proportional.
Parjo calculated the loss from 10 hectares of cultivated land. To cultivate 1 hectare of rice fields the cost can reach IDR 10 million. This fee starts from the rental of agricultural machinery after planting and harvesting to the purchase of rice seeds and fertilizers.
“If it’s 10 hectares, yes, it can reach Rp. 100 million. So, with harvest conditions like this, we will lose,” said Parjo in a sad tone.
According to Parjo, the failure of the Rendengan season rice harvest was not only experienced by him, but also his relatives, even his village friends also suffered the same fate.
Seeing this condition, the Regent of Merauke, Romanus Mbaraka believes that the failure of the Rendengan season will affect the absorption of local and national markets that have been provided by the regional government. “We have prepared the market. It’s just that this year there is a problem with the weather,” he said.
Meanwhile, a Head of the Merauke Regency Food Crops and Horticulture Agency, Ratna Launce, said that this year’s rendengan planting area will reach 33 thousand hectares.
However, the agency he leads does not yet know if there is a crop failure in all food centers. Meanwhile, the agency itself has not recorded real harvest failures at the farmer level.
“We can’t say how many areas of rice fields that have failed to harvest. We are still collecting data, later when the data is complete, I will provide it,” said Ratna