The fast growth property business and infrastructure development has made agricultural areas in East Jakarta declining.

At this time, our agricultural land that we managed continues to decline because of property business and various infrastructures development

“At this time, our agricultural land that we managed continues to decline because of property business and various infrastructures development,” stated Head of Agriculture Section for East Jakarta Agriculture and Forestry Sub-Department, Sugeng, Sunday (11/2).

According to Sugeng, agriculture land is still very much needed because of the high population growth rate in the municipality which makes the need for food automatically increases. Moreover, the people still need qualified processed agricultural products.

“If agricultural land kept declining, we are worried it would disturb the need for food in our municipality. Besides, our farmers still need raw materials to produce high quality processed products,” he uttered.

Based on the data of East Jakarta Agriculture and Forestry Sub-Department, last year there were 205.000 hectares of rice fields in the border of East Jakarta. Now, the number decreases to only 41.278 hectares. It is expected that the existing rice fields could survive and not be sold to property developers.

“Our agricultural land only remains 41.278 hectares, namely 6.278 hectares in Cakung Sub-District and 35 hectares in Makasar Sub-District. We hope that the remaining land would not be sold to the developers,” he uttered.