5.000 ha Lahan Sawah Berubah Setiap Tahun: Perketat Alih Fungsi Lahan Pertanian

BANDUNG, (PR), 23 Maret 2008.- Gubernur Jabar Danny Setiawan menginstruksikan bupati/wali kota di Jabar, untuk memperketat alih fungsi lahan pertanian. Setiap tahun, sekitar 5.000 ha lahan pertanian di Jabar beralih fungsi menjadi lahan yang tidak produktif. Padahal, Jabar berupaya meningkatkan produksi padi hingga di atas 7 ton/ha.

"Saya akan membuat surat kepada para bupati, mempertegas surat-surat sebelumnya, agar mereka ikut mengontrol, mengawasi, dan mengendalikan alih fungsi lahan itu. Kalau pun ada alih fungsi lahan, itu harus mempunyai nilai plus. Contohnya, alih fungsi jadi pabrik yang bisa menyerap tenaga kerja yang banyak. Tapi, jangan sampai alih fungsi lahan untuk hotel-hotel yang tidak produktif," ujar Danny, ketika ditemui "PR" di sela-sela acara "Panen Raya Padi" hasil bantuan benih padi program Peningkatan Produksi Beras Nasional (P2BN), di Kp. Si Jepat, Desa Majasetra, Kec. Majalaya, Kab. Bandung, Sabtu (22/3).

Tampak hadir, Ketua DPRD Jabar H.A.M. Ruslan, Ketua DPD Golkar Jabar Uu Rukmana, Kepala Dinas Pertanian Tanaman Pangan Jabar Lucky Rulyaman Djunaedi, Bupati Bandung Obar Sobarna, dan Anggota DPRD Kab. Bandung Denni Rukada.

Menurut Danny, untuk mengamankan lahan pertanian di Jabar, para bupati dan wali kota diminta memperketat perizinan. Mereka pun harus lebih selektif saat memberi izin alih fungsi lahan pertanian. Hal itu perlu dilakukan karena setiap tahun, pengembangan sawah baru di Jabar tidak lebih dari 1.000 ha. Padahal, produksi padi di Jabar diharapkan bisa ditingkatkan hingga 7-10 ton/ ha. Sementara, saat ini, produksi padi di Jabar baru ada pada kisaran 6,9 ton/ha.

"Kalau perlu, ada piala gubernur untuk KTNA (kelompok tani nelayan andalan) atau petani yang bisa meningkatkan produksi padinya lebih dari 6 ton/ha. Mun perlu, hadiahna naik haji jeung umroh," ujarnya. Pemberian hadiah itu diharapkan bisa memotivasi petani untuk meningkatkan produksi padi di Jabar.

Danny mengakui, meski core bisnis Jabar menitikberatkan pada usaha agrobisnis, tetapi banyak hal yang menghambat pengembangan pertanian di Jabar. Salah satunya, banyak buruh tani atau penggarap daripada jumlah pemilik lahan pertanian. Sedangkan petani pemilik lahan, rata-rata hanya memiliki lahan kurang dari 2,5 ha. Mereka pun sering dihadapkan dengan masalah pengadaan bibit dan pupuk. Akibatnya, tidak sedikit petani yang menjual lahannya, sehingga lahan itu beralih fungsi.

Untuk itu, katanya, guna menguatkan petani sehingga tidak menjual lahan itu, pengadaan bibit diharapkan bisa terus terkendali. Pemerintah pun harus terus bekerja sama dengan petani untuk meningkatkan produksi padi nasional. Apalagi, Jabar tercatat sebagai pelaksana program P2BN terbaik di Indonesia.

Kendala

Sementara itu, Ketua KTNA Kab. Bandung Nono S. Syambas mengatakan, hasil produksi padi saat ini, mengalami kenaikan dibandingkan tahun-tahun sebelumnya. Kenaikan itu dirasakan setelah ada bantuan pemberian bibit padi pada program P2BN. Ia pun berharap, kebutuhan pasokan padi di Jabar bisa dipenuhi oleh Kab. Bandung.

Meski begitu, lanjut Nono, untuk meningkatkan produksi padi, para petani masih dihadapkan pada berbagai kendala, seperti ketersediaan benih dan pupuk serta ketercukupan pengairan.

Selain itu, Majalaya sebagai sentra padi di Kab. Bandung, merupakan daerah industri. Akibatnya, tidak sedikit petani yang tergoda menjual lahannya kepada pihak industri. Untuk itu, diperlukan dukungan dari pemerintah agar pertanian bisa menjadi andalan bagi petani, sehingga pemiliknya tidak menjual lahan yang dimilikinya.

Bupati Bandung Obar Sobarna menyebutkan, berkat fasilitasi dari Gubernur Jabar, Kab. Bandung bisa mendapatkan bantuan benih padi dari program P2BN sebanyak 420 ton. Oleh karena itu, atas nama para petani di Kab. Bandung, ia menyampaikan terima kasih kepada gubernur.

Setelah acara panen raya, Gubernur menyerahkan bantuan kepada korban bencana alam di Kab. Bandung. Bantuan itu disampaikan melalui bupati, yaitu 2.000 kg beras, 2.000 mie instan, dan 1.000 kaleng sarden.

Ketahanan pangan

Kepala Dinas Pertanian Tanaman Pangan Jabar, Lucky Rulyaman Djunaedi, mengatakan, upaya menekan alih fungsi lahan akan sangat berpengaruh kepada tingkat ketahanan pangan. Alih fungsi lahan juga akan berdampak pada target dan perolehan padi per tahunnya.

Menurut dia, meningkatnya alih fungsi lahan pertanian juga berisiko terhadap meningkatnya peredaran beras impor. Sebab, alasan utama yang dilontarkan mereka yang berkepentingan memasukkan beras impor adalah pasokan beras lokal yang tak mencukupi dibandingkan besarnya tingkat konsumsi dan jumlah warga.

Ketua Himpunan Kerukunan Tani Indonesia (HKTI) Jabar, Rudy Gunawan menilai, upaya menekan alih fungsi lahan akan sangat bergantung kepada komitmen kepala daerah. Upaya mempertahankan lahan pertanian dan menekan alih fungsi, merupakan kewajiban moral bagi setiap kepala daerah.

"Maraknya keinginan pemekaran wilayah di Jabar, sangat berisiko memunculkan alih fungsi lahan pertanian. Setiap pemekaran wilayah, biasa diikuti pembongkaran lahan pertanian, terutama oleh perusahaan bisnis rumah, yang sebaiknya diperketat izinnya," ujar Rudy.

Ia mencontohkan, alih fungsi lahan pertanian yang parah sedang terjadi seiring terbentuknya Kabupaten Bandung Barat. Sejumlah perusahaan pengembang terus menghabisi lahan sawah produktif di Kec. Ngamprah dan Kec. Padalarang, yang sebelumnya justru dikenal sebagai salah satu sentra padi di Kabupaten Bandung. (A-81/A-136) ***

Nepal farmers reap bumper harvest

Friday, 2 September 2005

By Charles Haviland BBC News, eastern Nepal Dan Bahadur Rajbansi, a farmer for 35 years, is new convert to SRI Farmers in Nepal are the latest to reap huge benefits from an ingenious method of rice cultivation. The system was invented by a French Jesuit in Madagascar in the 1980s and has already scored successes in parts of Africa, Latin America and Asia, including India and China. Now it offers Nepalese a ray of hope in a country beset by conflict. During a patchy monsoon, Ananta Ram Majhi, his father and women relatives are harvesting the rice they planted in April on their farm near the city of Biratnagar. In lush fields bordered by fruit trees and bamboo, the family swipe with their sickles, cutting an unusually abundant rice crop. These are great thick stalks of rice, 50 or 60 sprouting from each seed. The good yield is thanks to a scheme new to Nepal, the System of Rice Intensification or SRI. Thirstier methods Ananta Ram and his neighbours were trained in it by a local farming official, Rajendra Uprety, who read of its success in other countries and took it up. "This method yields more than twice as much rice," Ananta Ram enthuses, estimating the new figure at 240 kilograms per kattha (360 square metres). "It uses one-tenth of the seeds - and much less water." There are many factors to SRI, but the key can be seen at a nearby farm where a younger crop is being transplanted. Rajendra Uprety persuaded the government to promote SRI nationally The seedlings are being moved from their nursery to the field where they will mature. But crucially, this is happening at a much earlier age - just 9 or 10 days, compared with the traditional 40-45 days. Earth is left on the seedlings instead of being shaken off. The women replant them in a strict straight line, singly rather than in clusters, and much further apart than is usual - about 25 centimetres. Best of all, there is a huge saving on water - the field need only be damp, not flooded. The rice is planted in mud, only needing extra weeding as compensation. The maturing plants flourish, much taller and stronger than their conventional neighbours. SRI is now used patchily in 22 countries - mainly thanks not to governments, but to dedicated individuals like Rajendra Uprety, agricultural extension officer for Morang district. He has hosted Nepal's minister of agriculture and persuaded the government to promote SRI nationally - so far, the only local agriculture official in the world to achieve this. His efforts have won a World Bank award. He says it is impossible to tell why less efficient and thirstier methods of cultivation have become customs. But he says the rice loses much potential if left in the nursery too long. Skilled attention It is difficult to tell why thirstier methods of cultivation have become customs SRI's inventor, Father Henri de Laulanie, found in the 1980s that having plants too close together inhibited their growth. Mr Uprety says that two years ago there was only one SRI farmer in his district. "Now I have more than 1,400. There are so many other farmers around Nepal, so many people ask me, telephone me. I send the information." The ministry has now produced 10,000 photographic posters about SRI, but he wants the word to spread more quickly. In this poor country, 85% of people depend on subsistence farming, mainly rice. Half the districts suffer a food deficit. According to Mr Uprety, these shortfalls would be wiped out if just 10 percent of the land switched to this rice system. It would also end the government practice of airlifting rice to 20 hill districts. Dan Bahadur Rajbansi, a farmer for 35 years, is another new convert to SRI. He showed the BBC a traditional rice plant in his left hand - just eight stalks from one seed. An SRI seedling in his right hand had yielded over 50. "When I first heard about the system, it sounded so wonderful that I couldn't believe it," he says. "But I tried sowing the seedlings on about 1,200 square metres of land. The results were marred by the drought. But they've still been impressive. We used to get barely 3,000 kilos of rice per hectare. Now we get about 6,000." Ananta Ram: "This method yields more than twice as much rice" The technique does not always work. It demands skilled attention and weeding and the right soil and climate. But it needs no special seeds and works better with natural compost than chemical fertiliser. Its practices such as greater spacing of seedlings have now been extended beyond rice to sugar cane, finger millet and even winter wheat - in Poland. And the crop, as well as being more abundant, matures more quickly. On their farm, Ananta Ram and his family anticipate another bumper harvest in October - and savings on water, money and land use.