Three Former Ministers Support Agricultural Downstreaming, Minister Of Agriculture Amran: This Is Our Encourager To Work Faster
JAKARTA - Minister of Agriculture (Mentan) Andi Amran Sulaiman received a visit from three former cabinet ministers at his residence, Jakarta, Monday, August 4. They are Adhyaksa Dault, Easter Suzetta, and Anton Apriantono.
The three of them expressed moral support for the government's efforts to strengthen downstreaming as the main driver of national economic growth and improve farmers' welfare.
"Hilirization is the future of our agriculture. It's not just a matter of production, but how the farmers' products can be processed, packaged, and marketed abroad. The support of these figures is an encouragement for us to work faster," Amran said in his official statement.
During the meeting, Amran said that the government had prepared a financing scheme with an investment value of IDR 371 trillion. This fund will be used to accelerate the downstream program, which is targeted to absorb up to 8.6 million workers in various related sectors.
The Ministry of Agriculture's downstream program includes the development of a farming processing industry, construction of logistics infrastructure, expansion of export market access, and digitization of supply chains from upstream to downstream.
Amran added that this step is part of President Prabowo Subianto's direct instruction, which wants Indonesia to immediately be food independent and stop dependence on large-valued imported products such as white sugar and raw sugar.
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"We were ordered by the President to produce food with high demand in the world market and stop imports whose value reaches trillions of rupiah every year," he said.
The Minister of Agriculture emphasized that downstreaming of 14 strategic commodities is the key to making Indonesia a world food barn. "If we fulfill this, God willing, we can hold the world in our hands through food. We believe that Indonesia will become a world food barn and the welfare of farmers will increase," he concluded.