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lack of proper irrigation systems in Central Sulawesi resulting from limited technical capabilities and budget constraints could threaten the success of the province’s food self-sufficiency program and doom it to failure.

Last year, the province failed to achieve self-sufficiency due to poor irrigation and prolonged drought.

Central Sulawesi Water Resources Agency head Saliman Simanjuntak said irrigation networks in the province had been neglected for decades due to limited budgets and limited technical capabilities.

“The Malonas irrigation network has been neglected for 31 years. We keep financing its maintenance but cannot use it at its maximum level. I don’t know how many hundreds of billions of rupiah have been spent, but hundreds of hectares of rice fields cannot be irrigated, even now,” he said.

Saliman said the Malonas irrigation network was built in 1985 in Donggala regency under the jurisdiction of the provincial administration. The network has the potential to irrigate 1,625 hectares. However, until now, only 688 ha benefit from irrigation.

He said the irrigation network had been neglected because its tertiary canals were not integrated into a single entity with the primary and secondary canals.

“The planning and implementation of the primary and secondary canals with tertiary canals was separated. So, a lot of water cannot be funneled into the tertiary canals on farmland that should be served,” he said.

Until now, he added, the construction of tertiary canals fell within the purview of farmers and farmers lacked the technical abilities and budgets to build them.

“Although certain canals are built and restored every year, the irrigation system will not be optimal because of these problems,” he said.

In the future, he added, irrigation network planning should properly integrate all levels, from the level of the dam up to the tertiary canal.

Besides the Malonas irrigation network, Saliman added that the condition of the Bunta irrigation network in Banggai regency, built in 1992, had the potential to irrigate 2,481 ha. However, only 1,411 ha are irrigated as of now.

The Air Terang irrigation network in Buol regency, built in 1996 and designed to irrigate 1,028 ha of rice field, is currently only able to irrigate 450 ha of farmland.

“In addition to that, the Special Allocation Funds proposal we submitted has also been cut by the central government,” he said.

Saliman said these conditions threatened the province’s ability to achieve self-sufficiency in food. The province’s program designed to achieve self-sufficiency is called Upsus Pajala.

In 2015, Central Sulawesi failed to attain self-sufficiency due to prolonged drought and poor irrigation networks.

Central Sulawesi Agriculture Agency head Trie Iriani Lamakampali told The Jakarta Post that while rice production had increased by 2.5 percent in 2015, while corn and soybeans declined.

She said corn production dropped from 170,000 tons in 2014 to 137,000 tons in 2015. Corn fields cover an area of 28,700 ha. Of that area, 2,311 ha were affected by water shortages and 896 ha by crop failure.

Soybean production dropped in 2015 from 16,359 tons to only 13,000 tons. Of the targeted soybean planting area of 6,817 ha in that year, 774 ha were affected by drought and 417 ha by crop failure.

“So, I must honestly say that Upsus Pajala in 2015 failed in Central Sulawesi,” said Trie.