Minister Of Agriculture Amran: Printing Rice Fields 3 Million Ha Makes Indonesia Free Of Imports 30 Years

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

JAKARTA - Minister of Agriculture (Mentan) Amran Sulaiman said the rice field printing program of 3 million hectares (ha) could make Indonesia free to import food for the next 30 years.

The main commodities that are run are rice.

Amran also believes that through the rice field printing program, it can increase rice production. In addition, this program is also run to pursue the food self-sufficiency target launched by President Prabowo Subianto.

"If we work on 3 million, God willing, we will not depend on imports for the next 20 to 30 years," he said at a coordination meeting between the central and regional governments in 2024, quoted from the Ministry of Home Affairs' YouTube, Thursday, November 7.

According to Amran, the most important thing is to maintain and maintain the land properly. And ensure there is no conversion of land function.

"What is important is that we take good care of it. We cannot change the function of land," he said.

In addition, Amran said that this rice field printing program would also be supported by modern technology facilities.

With the support of this technology, it is believed that rice production will increase to 7 million tons. For example, he continued, printing rice fields in the Merauke area.

He said, there are already around 40,000 hectares (ha) of land that have been printed into rice fields.

In fact, Prabowo has also visited the area.

"Yesterday, the President asked directly, the production increased by 7 tons with the superior seeds that we prepared. Our target (within) 3 years, 1 million ha (field printing) was completed," he said.

Amran said the national rice field printing plan is targeted at 3 million ha. Where the main area to be printed for the largest rice fields is Merauke, which is 1 million ha. Then, Central Kalimantan 500,000 ha and South Kalimantan 500,000 ha.

Another area is 1 million ha. So that the total is 3 million ha. Production later with a traditional agricultural transformation approach towards modern, "he explained.