Minister Of Agriculture Amran Says Modern Agriculture Can Lower Plant Costs By 60 Percent

Minister of Agriculture, Andi Amran Sulaiman. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Minister of Agriculture Andi Amran Sulaiman said modern agriculture or rice planting activities carried out in various regions including Bantul Regency, Yogyakarta Special Region, could reduce the cost of planting up to 60 percent compared to traditional agriculture.

"Today we have planted and deliberately planted using a rice transplanter planting machine, harvesting using machines, then milling and so on," said Minister of Agriculture Amran after reviewing modern rice planting activities in the Barokah Blawong Farmers Group, Bantul, DIY, quoted from Antara, Wednesday 24 January.

He said the government did have a big idea, namely the transformation of traditional agriculture into modern agriculture, so that Indonesian farmers can compete with other countries by transforming.

"The goal is to plant using the machine tool earlier, if it is manual, use hands, it uses 20 people per hectare, if we use the planting tool, it only uses one person, meaning that we are efficient, the cost of planting can go down to 60 percent," he said.

In addition to being efficient and reducing the cost of planting up to 60 percent, said Minister Amran, rice growth is more evenly distributed, because from one hectare of land, planting activities can be completed within a day when using agricultural machinery.

"Meanwhile, if one person (traditional) grows alone, it takes 20 days, then the 20 days of planting is not the same, the first day is cooked, until the 20th day, so the production costs are higher, then inefficient and so on," he said.

Furthermore, Minister Amran said that the last advantage of modern agriculture is to attract the interest of the younger generation, because the government's aid planting machine is more profitable.

"Millennial Generation may not be interested in the agricultural sector if it is not profitable, it is impossible for millennial farmers to want to farm if it is not profitable. And modern agriculture costs can decrease by 60 percent, production increases by 50 percent, this is the government's goal," he said.

Minister Amran also said that by transforming into modern agriculture, 20 people have always been involved, but with technology that only uses one person, 19 other farmers can transform into other economic activities.

"For example, raising chickens, ducks, so that our farmer productivity increases, farmers' exchange rate increases," he said.