Corn Imports Drop From 3.5 Million Tons To 800 Thousand Tons, Jokowi: Because Farmers Are Assisted and Local Production Increases

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) shows off the government's achievements in suppressing corn imports. Jokowi said Indonesia used to import 3.5 million tons of corn per year. However, in the last seven years, it has fallen to just 800 thousand tons per year.

"I saw what I was amazed at, the corn business. We have imported 3.5 million tons of corn per year for so many years, and for the past 7 years, our imports have fallen to only 800,000 tons per year. I am amazed", Jokowi said at the launch. the launching of the Exclusive Partnership Movement for MSMEs Upgrading, Monday, October 3.

The former governor of DKI Jakarta said that this achievement could not be separated from assistance to farmers. As a result, local corn farmers' production increased.

Where every 1 hectare of land that originally produced 4 tons of corn, can now be doubled to 8 tons. "Because of what? There are corn farmers who accompany, there are corn farmers who guard", he explained.

Jokowi said that the cost of corn production is only IDR 1,800 to IDR 1,900 per kilogram. "That's what I knew when I went to Dompu (NTB) that it could sell for IDR 3,800 per kilogram. Fortunately, it was 100 percent", he said.

Because of this, Jokowi does not want the coaching model to be carried out only for corn commodity farmers. He wants this model to be applied to other commodities such as rice, porang, and cassava.

"It's not just corn, other commodities should be accompanied by the same pattern, if corn can do it, rice can, cassava can, coffee can, porang can and that's the job of big companies", he said.

Jokowi also warned big companies to care about small businesses in the environment where they operate. One of the forms is a partnership so that the quality of business and products from small businesses.

"Don't let a big company in one area look tall and big, the environment (around) is poor", he said.