Responding to the Covid-19 pandemic that is now sweeping the world, the Papua Provincial Agriculture Office is calling on all people to start aggressively growing local food.

This was conveyed by the Head of the Papua Agriculture Service, Semuel Siriwa, during a visit to Merauke, recently.

"Food security during the Covid pandemic tends to weaken, as data submitted by the world agency FAO, harvests in food barns have begun to decline".

"So that our people aggressively urge to plant local food to fulfill their daily needs," he explained.

He said, Merauke Regency, which is currently a granary for rice crops in Papua, with a total of 39 thousand hectares of rice target from January to December 2020 or 95% of the target rice land in Papua alone, has begun to experience a decline in yields.

Where the decline in planting area in 2019 is reported to reach 49 thousand hectares, so in order to address this weakening of food security, diversification of local plants is needed, which must be spurred to support the food needs of the Papuan people.

"We hope that all districts, including in Merauke can maximize agricultural assistance from the central and provincial levels as supporting data in the 2020 Fiscal Year".

"There are approximately 11 thousands lowland rice seeds, 4 thousands upland rice seeds, corn seeds and agricultural tools that are provided so they are expected to be maximized to meet the needs during the pandemic," he explained.