Introductory Remarks of President of the Republic of Indonesia at the Limited Cabinet Meeting (through Video Conference) on Continuation of Food Estate Discussion Wednesday, 23 September 2020 at the Merdeka Palace, Jakarta
Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.
Assalamu’alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.
Distinguished Vice President,
Ladies and gentlemen.
First of all, I would like to remind you that the provision of national food reserves is a strategic agenda that we must carry out in order to anticipate the food crisis conditions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) has repeatedly warned on the world food crisis. This is also to anticipate climate change, and no less important is to reduce our dependence on food imports. This is important.
In the meantime, we have prepared two locations, namely in Central Kalimantan and North Sumatra. In Central Kalimantan is in Kapuas Regency and Pulang Pisau Regency, and in North Sumatra is in Humbang Hasundutan Regency. We want to prioritize the two first, although we also plan to continue in other provinces after this work has begun, namely in Papua, East Nusa Tenggara, and South Sumatra. Still, we will discuss these after the first two are operational.
There has been a number of progress in the field, although there are some issues that need to be resolved immediately, such as land ownership in the food estate area which has raised a few problems. However, I am sure and I order Minister of Agrarian and Spatial Planning/Head of National Land Agency to immediately resolve this since the issue involves a very large area.
Second, regarding the formulation of the master plan for the implementation of the food estate. This is also very important so that all of these various aspects can be observed and can be immediately resolved, both for the irrigated area of 148,000 hectares in Central Kalimantan that will be used to plant rice and the non-irrigated area of 622,000 hectares that will be used to plant cassava, maize and others as well as for livestock breeding.
Third, related to supporting infrastructure like road access should be carried out immediately, this aims to accommodate large modern agricultural tools and machines to enter the field.
Last, I order that the development of the food estates should be carefully calculated on the one who takes the managerial role, the certainty, the variety of plants, really based on field science data, so everything that we plant is very suitable, as well as on the technology that we are going to use. And the last one regarding the financing issue, if we are using the correct business model, then the same business model will be implemented in other locations for other provinces. However, I think we must determine the proper one first.
And that concludes my remarks.
Translated by Galuh Wicaksono
Reviewed by Lulu Wuliarti