Organizational Change for Participatory Irrigation Management

Out of these planning area expansion, an additional production of about 2.1 million mt
of GKG, 300,000 mt of corn, and 400,000 mt of soybean is expected. The total budget
allocation for SPL-JBIC INF-22 was Rp.1,461 billion of which Rp.1,171 billion (80 percent)
for infrastructure development on farm irrigation, and for other activities such as land
cultivation, post-harvest aspects, training, and institution development.
Activities of this crash program are concentrated on the development of facilities and
infrastructure, which can be partitioned into five groups of activities, namely:
(1) Agricultural infrastructure development such as drainage, water facilities, and farm road;
(2) The provision of agricultural machinery including pre- and post-harvest machinery in
order to speed up land preparation and to increase product quality;
(3) Dissemination of farming technology;
(4) Strengthening of agricultural institutions; and
(5) The provision of consultancy services.
Through the provision of agricultural facilities and infrastructure, it is expected that the
land utility will be optimized both through the increase of crop intensity and area planted and
in agribusiness. Since that year to 2004, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry will have a food
security program and an agribusiness program. Out the three land types (irrigation land, tidal
swampland and dryland), irrigation land has a big share for food production compared to the
others.
Impact of Irrigation on Farm Productivity
Agriculture remains a key sector of the Indonesian economy, contributing 18.01 percent
of GDP in 1998 and providing employment to some 65-75 percent of the labor force. Irrigated
agriculture plays a very important role in the production of staple foods in Indonesia, especially
rice. In 1996, the total area of paddy was 9,947,715 ha of which irrigated paddy was
7,137,700 ha or 71.7 percent and the remaining 2,810,015 ha or 28.3 percent were rainfed
paddy, tidal swamp and upland paddy. At present, about 5,537,700 ha are irrigated under
public sector management and about 1.6 million ha are operated under village irrigation
systems, primarily managed by farmers themselves. The estimated area of paddy cultivation
and the irrigated area by islands groups are given in Table 2.
Table 2. Irrigated Areas Based on Main Islands in Indonesia, 1996
(Unit: 000 ha)
Island Area under Paddy* Irrigated Area
Sumatra 2,418.8 2,254.1
Java 5,058.5 3,176.3
Bali and Nusa Tenggara 551.0 438.1
Kalimantan 780.3 202.8
Sulawesi 1,067.3 993.9
Maluku 111.8 66.5
Total 9,987.7 7,131.7
Source: Sutardi, 2000.
Note: * Estimated figure.
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