North Nias - In this 2017 famine season, rice production in North Nias Regency is able to provide rice to meet public consumption. So that the supply of rice is quite at once the price of rice is stable. Head of North Nias Regency Agriculture Office Idaman Johan Hulu, ST, MM said rice cultivation in September 2017 resulted in a crop in December 2017 of 800 hectares and productivity of 6 tons per hectare. He explained, the assured rice production of North Nias Regency is due to the Central Government and the Region really to continue to guarantee and even increase rice production. For example, to anticipate the impact of famine, the government has channeled a lot of assistance to farmers, such as water pumps, tractors and seedlings, rehabilitation of tertiary irrigation networks, embungs and others. "The technological assistance and the massive field work done by BPTP Balitbangtan of North Sumatra to monitor the development of the plant so the production process runs smoothly," explained Head of AIAT Dr. Sumut. Khadijah El Ramidja in a written statement, Monday (18/12/2017). Related to this, the village farmer Banua Sibohou, Taluno, said the government's assistance really helped him. Aid in the form of water pumps, seeds and tractors has made rice crops successfully harvested with yields of 6 tons per hectare (Inpari 30 varieties). "It used to be a bad season like this, the productivity is only 4-5 tons per hectare thanks to this government program, the harvest is better," he said. Please note, based on data Kementan, national rice planting area in July - September 2017 reached 1.0 - 1.1 million hectares per month. This means a doubling from the year before the Upsus program only 500 thousand hectares per month. The total rice harvest in December 2017 is 1.1 million hectares with 6 million tons of GKG or 3 million tons of rice. This production is able to meet the needs of national rice consumption of 2.6 million tons and means a surplus of 0.4 million tons. The increase in planted area of dry season from July to September doubled is a permanent solution of the impact of the Agriculture Minister's Upstream Program Andi Amran Sulaiman. The program has completed the rehabilitation of a tertiary irrigation network of 3.4 million hectares or 113%, construction of 2,278 parcels / long storage units, expansion and optimization of 1.08 million hectares, development of 367 thousand hectares of swamp land. In addition, mechanization with the help of tractor machineries, pumps, rice transplanters, combine harvester 284,436 units rose 2.175 percent from 2014. Then, seed assistance 12.1 million hectares, subsidized fertilizer 27.64 million tons and rice farming insurance 1.2 million hectares .