Support Food Self-Sufficiency Program, Land Bank Prepares Land In Maluku To North Sumatra

Head of the Land Bank Agency Parman Natamatmadja. Photo: Theresia Agatha/VOI

JAKARTA - The Land Bank Agency ensures that it is ready to support the Prabowo Subianto government's target to achieve food self-sufficiency.

Head of the Land Bank Agency, Parman Natamatmadja, said that his party had prepared land to support the achievement of food security. The distribution of land is located on the islands of Sumatra, Sulawesi and Kalimantan.

"We are certainly ready for this food self-sufficiency. Now there is, yes, food security. As in Luhu (Maluku), Poso (Central Sulawesi). We will get more in several lands, of course in South Tapanuli (North Sumatra) already exists. Later there will be in Kalimantan, it can be for food security," said Parman when met at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Jakarta, Thursday, October 24.

Parman said that currently the total land managed by his party reaches 27,000 hectares (ha). However, Parman has not been able to detail the total land that will be prepared to support food security.

"In total, now we are 27,000 hectares. We will see from the entire land," he said.

Moreover, said Parman, not all of the land on the island of Kalimantan itself can be used. One of them is in the Palangkaraya area, West Kalimantan, which still has problems related to water.

"Because in Kalimantan not everything can be used (the land), yes. Don't let it be like the one in Palangkaraya (water constraints) that must be used, yes," he said.

He also targets that land in the South Kalimantan region can be used to support the Prabowo program. "We will get it soon, for example, God willing, it can be done in South Kalimantan (South Kalimantan)," he concluded.

Previously, President Prabowo Subianto targeted that in the next four to five years, Indonesia could achieve food self-sufficiency.

"I have studied with the experts who helped me. I am sure that no later than four to five years we will achieve self-sufficiency in food," he said when delivering his first speech as President of the Republic of Indonesia at the MPR RI Building, Jakarta, Sunday, October 20.

According to Prabowo, food self-sufficiency is absolutely necessary so that Indonesia is no longer dependent on imports from other countries. Because, if it is in a precarious condition, no country will want to supply its food to other countries.

"Therefore, there is no other way. In the shortest possible time we have to achieve food security," he said.