Minister Of Agriculture: Food Estate Can Create Jobs

Farmers harvest rice using agricultural machinery (alsintan) during the main harvest in the 'Food Estate' national food barn in Belanti Siam Village, Pulang Pisau Regency, Central Kalimantan. (Meaning of Zaezar / Antara)

JAKARTA - Minister of Agriculture Syahrul Yasin Limpo said that the development of a food barn or food estate in Central Kalimantan is a long-term program that can create new jobs in rural areas.

With this program, the Minister of Agriculture explained that later there will be farmer groups working on 100 hectares of land and land per 1,000 hectares by a combination of farmer groups that have been exported to an even bigger area of up to 10,000 hectares. According to him, a food estate will be able to increase the income of family farmers and ensure national food security.

"It is hoped that farmers will no longer sell unhulled rice cheaply. This means that everything must be downstreamed and the industry must be well designed," said Syahrul in Jakarta, as reported by Antara, Tuesday, October 13.

Previously, Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati emphasized that one of the strategic programs included in the 2021 APBN would focus on realizing food security through support for economic recovery and revitalization of the national food system as well as food estate development.

According to the Minister of Finance, the food estate program is a government effort to create food security by increasing productivity outside Java as well as part of the structural reforms that have been accommodated in the 2021 State Budget.

"I think we have to support the APBN as a fiscal instrument to achieve domestic food security," said Sri Mulyani.

Furthermore, the food estate development area in Central Kalimantan Province will be used as a demonstration area with the application of a touch of modern agricultural technology so that agricultural cultivation is different from traditional methods.

In this cross-ministerial project, the application of agricultural mechanization and technology is expected to optimize swamps into productive agricultural land and increase agricultural production.