Vice President Ma'ruf Said That The Agricultural Land Was Investigated By The Transfer Of Functions

The potential for food barns on ex-gambut rice fields is cultivated by the community in Canal Makmur Village, Kapuas Regency, Central Kalimantan. (doc of the Ministry of Agriculture)

JAKARTA - Vice President (Vice President) Ma'ruf Amin acknowledged the conversion of agricultural land functions to non-farmers that could threaten Indonesia's food stability.

"The fact that agricultural land is shrinking is because the conversion of agricultural land to non-farm. Earlier, the minister also mentioned this as a critical issue. This can be a real threat to our food security, if not accompanied by efforts to boost production," said the Vice President in Jakarta, Wednesday, January 25.

The Vice President conveyed this when opening the 2023 National Working Meeting for Agricultural Development with the theme "Strengthening the Agricultural Sector as Controlling Inflation in Facing the World Food Crisis".

"I was told by the Governor of Yogyakarta Sri Sultan. He said to maintain agricultural land according to the set target, if there is a district that must use agricultural land, then (the district) must replace it again so that the amount of land does not decrease continuously. If all governors, regents, do this, I think they can protect agricultural land," he said. confiscated by Antara.

He asked the Ministry of Agriculture (Kemenpar) to make breakthroughs to jump to increase productivity and create added value for agricultural products.

"Hopefully, even though the land is limited, the productivity and income of farmers can continue to be increased. I appreciate the Minister of Agriculture and his staff for maintaining and maintaining agricultural productivity in Indonesia," he added.

The Vice President also reminded the Ministry of Tourism to cooperate with various parties, both individual farmers and groups, universities, community organizations, and research institutions so as to create applicative innovations, such as the discovery of superior seeds, agricultural technology, as well as agricultural facilities and infrastructure.

"This National Working Meeting of the Ministry of Agriculture is to increase the work of food farming in order to anticipate the crisis and also to overcome inflation. This agricultural sector is one of our leading sectors and which has always been a surplus," he said.

In fact, Indonesia received awards from the international community for its achievements in agriculture.

"Therefore, efforts to improve and maintain our agricultural products are something that must be because there are challenges that we face, namely the global food crisis. Of course, if we are not ready, it will have an impact on us," said the Vice President.

Based on BPS data, according to the Vice President, rice production in Indonesia is always in surplus every year. However, rice production surplus tends to decrease from year to year, from 4.37 million tons in 2018 to 1.74 million tons in 2022.

The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) also said that the agricultural sector will be one of the main sectors of Indonesia's economic foundation in 2022.

BPS said Indonesia's economic growth in the third quarter of 2022 reached 5.72 percent with the support of three main sectors, namely industry, mining, and agriculture which contributed to gross domestic product (GDP) reaching 66.54 percent.

PDB growth according to the employment sector in the agricultural sector in the third quarter of 2022 grew convincingly with a value of 1.65 percent (yoy), with a contribution of 12.91 percent in the agricultural sector. Agriculture has so far also absorbed the workforce the most, which is around 28.61 percent.