Minister Of Agriculture Optimistic Of Indonesia Self-Sufficiency In Food In The Next Three Years

JAKARTA - Minister of Agriculture (Mentan) Andi Amran Sulaiman said he was optimistic that Indonesia would be able to realize food self-sufficiency in less than three years.

"God willing, we will not have more than three years of self-sufficiency (food) again," Amran said on the sidelines of attending the National Food Festival (Bapanas) National Food Agency (Bapanas) at Glora Bung Karno (GBK) Jakarta, Sunday.

Amran's belief is in line with various government efforts that continue to intensify the expansion of the planting area (PAT) and the rapid pumping solution in anticipation of a long drought due to heat waves.

The Minister of Agriculture said that so far preparations for preparation have been made to increase national productivity. Among them are the addition of subsidized fertilizer allocations from the previous 4.5 million tons to 9.5 million tons.

In addition, the distribution of free seeds, the use of alsintan and the installation of fast pumping solutions to irrigate rice fields by extracting water through pumps from non-dry rivers.

He explained that pumping is the first time in history has been carried out by the government through the Ministry of Agriculture as one of the quick efforts to increase national agricultural production. This is because the use of pumps that are utilized is 20,559 units per day and rice fields is realized around 582,528 hectares.

"What is the goal? The goal is to pump rivers that are never dry to be channeled into the fields. The results already exist, even the President (Joko Widodo) has visited seven pumping areas and he asked for it to be accelerated immediately because the results are evident from the one who planted it once to 3 times," he said.

According to the Minister of Agriculture, all these efforts have been proven to be able to significantly increase production so that based on the prognosis of the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) and Bapanas in the harvest for the next two months, Indonesia will have a surplus of 700 thousand tons.

That way, said the Minister of Agriculture, food shortages that meet imports can be suppressed through domestic production.

"And this is hard work for all of us, including the hard work of journalists (media), because success has never stood alone. Not only the Ministry of Agriculture, but journalists, Bulog and Bapanas are also part of the success of the government in the food sector," he said.