Parit Malintang, (Antaranews Sumbar) - The Government of Padang Pariaman District, West Sumatra requires an additional of 450 units of hand tractors to assist farmers in increasing rice production in the area.
"Currently we only have about 850 units of hand tractors," Head of Agriculture and Food Security Agency of Padang Pariaman, Yurisman Yakub stated here on Thursday.
He said the amount is still lacking because the total hand tract which is needed by the area reached about 1,300 units.
The total amount of agricultural machinery needed to assist farmers in cultivating large rice fields reached 62,338 hectares by 2017.
It believes in the presence of agricultural machinery, it can help farmers in increasing rice production in the area.
"The improvement of agricultural machinery is one of our ways to increase rice production, which has been going on for several years," he said.
He mentioned that rice production in the area in 2015 was only 278,127 tons, then it increased to 287,046 tons in 2016, and 321,376 tons in 2017.
Therefore, the company is trying to increase the number of agricultural machinery in the area in order to facilitate work and increase rice production in the area.
This year, the region gets 57 units of hand tractors originating from central government 30 units and 27 units from principal fund of one of local council members.
"We hope that the farmers' group will use it interchangeably because so far there is a presumption that agricultural equipment is a property right," he added. (cha)
