PORTALJABAR, INDRAMAYU REGENCY - Acting Governor Bey Machmudin is optimistic that West Java can achieve the target of dry milled rice production of 11,084,635 tons by the end of 2024 as desired by the Central Government.

Various efforts have been made with agricultural intensification such as pumping and arranging planting schedules. Another effort that is no less important is data synchronization with the Central Statistics Agency.

"I asked the Head of the Food Crops and Horticulture Service to recheck and reconcile the data with BPS," said Bey Machmudin while reviewing the main harvest in Tukdana District, Indramayu Regency, Monday (11/18/2024).

Bey's confidence grew after seeing the bumper harvest in Tukdana District, where one hectare of rice fields could produce 8 tons of dry milled rice.

Moreover, the production environment is integrated, where there is a rice mill not far from the rice fields, thus simplifying the production process.

"Next to (the rice field) there is a rice mill, it is a very good example for other farmer groups," said Bey.

Bey realized that there are still many agricultural obstacles that still need to be answered. Like currently farmers are still complaining about expensive fertilizer prices and stocks that are sometimes scarce. However, the West Java Provincial Government is trying to ensure that the farmer's exchange rate continues to improve.

"Farmers complain that fertilizer is still difficult to obtain. We want the farmer's exchange rate to improve," said Bey, who received aspirations from Tukdana farmers.

Bey revealed that one of the causes of scarce fertilizers is also due to the current government transition, in which many ministry nomenclatures have changed as have their office holders. Automatically, this change has an impact on the bureaucracy.

According to him, currently the national fertilizer quota is 9.55 million tons but only about 5 million tons have been distributed. In addition to bureaucratic changes, another problem is agricultural irrigation.