resident Prabowo Subianto has prohibited the conversion of rice fields for residential use as the government seeks to prevent a further reduction in plantation acreage while pushing ahead with its massive housing program.
Deputy Housing and Settlements Minister Fahri Hamzah announced the ban on Tuesday during an event in Jakarta titled "Policy Seminar on Sustainable Housing, Buildings and Cities in Indonesia".
“The President has prohibited us to use rice fields for building homes,” Fahri was quoted as saying by Kumparan.
He added that he had met some parties that had built on such land and explained that it played out that way because farmers did not have much bargaining power, meaning developers could buy rice fields on the cheap.
“There is a banking incentive project that needs regulating, because the majority of the construction is [taking place] on rice fields, because it’s easy to get rice fields and the farmers don’t have bargaining power,” said Fahri.
He went on to say that the homebuilding program must not disrupt Prabowo’s goal of food self-sufficiency.
In December, officials said the government was set to draft a new regulation that would allow the country to turn rice fields into patches of land suited for additional housing developments.
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