Minister Of Agriculture Amran Optimistic That Indonesia Can Anticipate Food Crisis

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

JAKARTA - Minister of Agriculture (Mentan) Andi Amran Sulaiman believes Indonesia can anticipate the food crisis due to extreme climate change.

"God willing, hopefully we can overcome and mitigate all the impacts caused by the extreme climate, climate change El Nino and drought, we can face the two overlappings this year, God willing," Amran said at the Presidential Palace, Jakarta, quoted from Antara, Monday 5 August.

The Ministry of Agriculture, he said, also took various strategic steps to anticipate food crises such as pumping and land optimization programs.

"The point is that our food sector accelerates and provides quick solutions for pumping and optimization of land. Then superior seeds, alsintan (farm equipment and machinery). That is a quick solution to overcome food problems," said Amran.

To note, the Ministry of Agriculture accelerates the acceleration of rice crop production to ensure adequate availability and food security in order to anticipate the food crisis.

"Currently we are all going to the field. All officials at the Ministry of Agriculture, staff at the Ministry of Agriculture are going to the field. We are still focusing on increasing food production," said Head of the Public Relations and Public Information Bureau of the Ministry of Agriculture Arief Cahyono in a statement in Jakarta, Thursday (1/8).

Arief said that the acceleration of rice planting was carried out with various efforts, including increased efficiency, technology, and support for farmers.

Arief revealed that currently the Ministry of Agriculture is working hard to increase rice production in all production centers so as to achieve food self-sufficiency and become a world food barn.

To face the threat of global hunger, the Ministry of Agriculture took various strategic steps, including accelerating the expansion program of the planting area (PAT), returning the allocation of subsidized fertilizers to 9.55 million tons, optimizing the pumping program with 62,378 units of water pumps and 9,904 pumping irrigation.

Then the optimization of swampland is 360,000 hectares and overlapping gogo rice on palm oil plants in 300 thousand hectares and providing rice seeds as much as 1.9 million hectares and corn seeds as much as 790 thousand hectares.