ASIATODAY.ID, JAKARTA – The Indonesian government will collaborate with the Thai government to optimize the use of swamp land into productive land to achieve food security.
“We will try to collaborate with Thailand because we have managed 400 thousand hectares. There is technology that we use and there is also technology that has been used by Thailand. We are allocating it to optimize swamp land which has the potential for the agricultural sector of 10 million hectares,” said the Minister of Agriculture Indonesia, Andi Amran Sulaiman after receiving a working visit from the Thai Ambassador, Prapan Disyatat at the Ministry of Agriculture Office, South Jakarta, Tuesday, November 28 2023.
It is known that Indonesia is currently focusing on increasing production of strategic commodities to reduce food import policies which have reached 3.5 million tons. One of them is by optimizing 10 million hectares of swamp land spread throughout Indonesia, including South Sumatra, South Kalimantan, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, Riau, Bengkulu, South Sulawesi and other areas.
“Hopefully in the near future we will optimize all of this because the rice problem is a global problem, no longer a national problem. We will start in December 2023,” he said.
According to Amran, increasing production must be carried out considering that currently the Central Asian region is facing the same threat of crisis, namely the food crisis. Apart from that, Indonesia is also facing a food import policy which must be reduced through achieving self-sufficiency.
“This collaboration with optimizing swamp land is not only with Thailand, but also several other countries. We are planning meetings with other countries in the near future. Our hope is not only to increase rice production to reduce imports but we are also targeting rice exports to Thailand,” explained Amran.
Thai Ambassador to Indonesia, Prapan Disyatat said that food collaboration with Indonesia has been carried out for a long time, especially in strengthening food security in the ASEAN region.
As is known, Indonesia and Thailand have an agricultural MoU which includes market access and investment. According to Prapan, the MoU provides a strong foundation for Thailand to collaborate in various aspects to encourage sustainable agricultural development.
“Following up on this MoU, the Ministries of Agriculture of the two countries have formed a Joint Agricultural Working Group (JAWG) to anticipate various obstacles that hinder the implementation of agricultural development,” he said.
Prapan added that this meeting also strengthened the commitment between Indonesia and Thailand to have the same attention to the importance of rice as the people’s staple food.
“I propose that both parties also start exploring the potential for collaboration in strengthening the rice value chain in Indonesia and Thailand,” he explained. (AT Network)
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