This Is The Reason Jokowi Asks Moeldoko To Accelerate The Development Of Sorghum To Replace Wheat

Moeldoko revealed the reason Jokowi asked to accelerate the development of sorghum as a substitute for wheat. (KSP Doc)

JAKARTA – Presidential Chief of Staff Dr. Moeldoko said that President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) requested that the development of sorghum as a substitute for wheat be accelerated. The problem, he said, was that Indonesia was one of the countries affected by the prolonged wheat export ban policy from a number of producing countries.

For example, Kazakhstan, which banned wheat exports until September 30, 2022, and Kyrgyzstan, India, Afghanistan, Algeria, Serbia, and Ukraine, which withheld wheat exports until December 31, 2022.

"The president has instructed to make a roadmap for the production and downstreaming of sorghum until 2024 in order to deal with the food crisis," said Moeldoko at the Bina Graha building, Jakarta, Monday 15 August.

Moeldoko said the government was developing the potential of sorghum which is genetically a family with wheat. Sorghum can be a substitute for wheat for the noodle and bread industry. "With sorghum, we will no longer be fussy about instant noodles like today," said Moeldoko.

The 2013-2015 TNI Commander added that currently the development of sorghum is in an area of 15 thousand hectares. The land is spread across West Nusa Tenggara, East Nusa Tenggara, West Java, East Java, to Lampung.

“In NTT the productivity of sorghum is three to four tons per hectare. In Java it is four to five tons per hectare. This can still be improved,” explained Moeldoko regarding the development of sorghum as an alternative to wheat as directed by Jokowi.