Padang Aro, (Antaranews Sumbar) - The Government of South Solok District, West Sumatra encourages local farmers to use certified rice seeds to increase their production. Head of Local Food Crops Department of Agriculture, Nurhamidah, in Padang Aro, Tuesday pointed out that in 2017 there is only 118,754 kilogram certified seeds used by farmers while the remaining 425,415 kilograms of seeds are superior but not certified. "Only 22 percent of farmers use certified seeds so that to increase our grain production, we continues to encourage them to use certified superior seeds," he explained. South Solok government this year will distribute 25 tons of certified seeds sourced from state budget for the district farmer group. In addition through the regional budget, there is a certified seed assistance for the new rice field of 2017 as many as 1,625 kilograms. He said South Solok currently has five seed breeder groups with the kind of rice developed by Junjuang and Congenital. The seeds provided by these five breeders are not able to fulfill the needs of South Solok yet so that other types of seeds such as anak daro, cisokan, caredek are still imported from other districts. "Our obstacle is in South Solok, because people do not want to sell rice so the breeders only rely on the results of their group land," he added. (cha) Translator: Vicha Faradika