President Prabowo Is Happy That Food Self-Sufficiency Can Be Achieved Before The Target In The 4th Year

JAKARTA - President Prabowo Subianto said he was happy because he received reports from his ministers that food self-sufficiency could be achieved before the targeted deadline, namely before the government he led entered its 4th year.

"Food self-sufficiency, I am also happy. The target I gave was 4 years, but I believe it will be achieved long before the 4th year," said President Prabowo during a speech at the inauguration ceremony of the Jatigede hydropower plant in Sumedang Regency, West Java, Monday, which was confiscated by Antara.

The President continued, his ranks of ministers, who are in charge of the food self-sufficiency program, reported that the desire to be independent in the food sector was likely realized before the 2nd year.

"I received a report from the food sector ministers that before the 2nd year we were self-sufficient in food. We will no longer import food," Prabowo continued.

Food self-sufficiency, which is one of the priority programs of President Prabowo's administration, is currently being carried out across sectors. The program involved a number of ministries, and also collaborated with the TNI and Polri.

In realizing food self-sufficiency, the Ministry of Agriculture targets 2.3 million hectares of land to be cultivated into rice fields and food plantations. The land to be cultivated is divided into optimization of swampland (oplah), printing new rice fields, then normalizing tertiary irrigation, primary, and secondary areas.

"Our target is to operate 851,000 hectares, print 500,000 hectares of rice fields, then release in Java is divided into tertiary irrigation, secondary, primary is 1 million hectares. A total of 2.3 million hectares," said Agriculture Minister Andi Amran Sulaiman to reporters in Jakarta last month.

Several new lands that will be printed into rice fields include in eastern Indonesia, precisely in Merauke Regency, South Papua.

Not only preparing land, the government has also prepared a well-distributed irrigation, fertilizer and seeds system to farmer groups.

Amran said the government allocated Rp12 trillion for the construction and revitalization of agricultural irrigation network infrastructure.

"Mr. President approved tertiary, primary, and secondary irrigation for 2 million hectares with the Ministry of Public Works (Public Works), the budget is IDR 12 trillion for all of Indonesia," said the Minister of Agriculture in the first week of this month.

He continued, the policy was to support the acceleration of food self-sufficiency, which was originally targeted in 2028 to 2027.