Minister Of Agriculture Denies Allegations Of Food Estate Using Polybag As Plant Media

Minister of Agriculture (Mentan) Amran Sulaiman gave a statement. Bandarlampung, Wednesday (20/12/2023). BETWEEN/Ruth Intan Sozometa Kanafi.

JAKARTA - Minister of Agriculture (Mentan) Andi Amran Sulaiman denied allegations that there were corn plants on food estates that used pot planting media or polybags.

"There is information that corn is planted in pots. I ask to try to show the pot, he said there are those who use pots in which direction," said Minister of Agriculture Amran while attending the counseling in Lampung, quoted by ANTARA from a written statement, Thursday, December 21.

According to the Minister of Agriculture, the use of pots is only carried out on experimental seeds to find out climate conditions and how much corn will grow. That is also only a few pots because other seeds continue to use the soil medium directly.

"It's just a trial so that we know the climate conditions and seeds that will be planted. And that's what the pictures are taking. Please change the mindset, change the character so that my beloved country can become a superpower. Don't fill it with losers who like slander," he said.

The Minister of Agriculture said that the transformation of agricultural technology has been so advanced, so traditional agricultural thinking must be changed, especially since this technology is applied to marginal land.

The Ministry of Agriculture (Kementan) together with the Ministry of Defense (Kemenhan) continues to focus on developing corn on the Food Estate Gunung Mas land, Central Kalimantan. Currently, the corn that has been planted in the food estate area has grown as high as adults.

"The Attorney General's Office thrives and the planting pattern is directly in the ground. It's not true if someone says planting in polybags. Let's avoid polemics," said Amran.

The Minister of Agriculture emphasized that the land in Gunung Mas is fertile so that it is estimated that corn can be harvested in January 2024.

Meanwhile, the Head of the Standardization Agency for Agricultural Instruments of the Ministry of Agriculture (BSIP Kementan), Fadjry Djufry, revealed that corn plants on the Food Estate Gunung Mas land have been carried out since October 25, 2023. The planting of corn on 4 ha-wide land is planted directly on the ground, not in the polybag.

"It is not true that corn is grown in polybags. Plantation in polybags is only during trials and the beginning of planting to find out the suitability of suitable or suitable corn varieties in the land and climate conditions of the area. That's just a number of lanes and initial planting," explained Fadjry.

He said the Gunung Mas Food estate is an extensification activity or expansion of new land whose management must be with modern agricultural technology, especially mechanization, such as in Taiwan, Japan and so on.

"The area of this Gunung Mas food estate is 600 hectares, meaning that the area is too small for us to make a fuss and a pole if we compare our national raw land area of 7.4 million hectares. That's only 0.008 percent. We are optimistic, in the next six months three months to six months this problem is resolved," he said.