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Japan gives RI lessons on farming

Cropping up: Vice President Jusuf Kalla (right) and his wife Mufidah visit an underground hydropononic farm in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, on Sunday as part of an official trip to Japan

Aditya Suharmoko (The Jakarta Post)
JAKARTA
Mon, February 2, 2009

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Japan gives RI lessons on farming

Cropping up: Vice President Jusuf Kalla (right) and his wife Mufidah visit an underground hydropononic farm in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, on Sunday as part of an official trip to Japan. On Tuesday, Kalla will leave for Washington to attend a session of the US Congress. ANTARA

Indonesia has reached self-sufficiency in food production, but stands to learn more from nations like Japan, says Vice President Jusuf Kalla.         

Kalla was speaking to reporters on Sunday during a three-day visit to Japan, as he paid a visit to Tokyo underground farm Pasona O2.

“Actually, we are not too dependent anymore [on food imports], unlike three or four years ago,” Kalla said.

“We have now reached self-sufficieny in rice, sugar and corn.”

Pasona O2 was established in 2005 in an attempt to boost Japan’s agriculture industry amid rising urbanization and a declining interest among young people to work and live in villages.

The farm boasts crops and plants that are grown without sunlight in an underground facility in the Ginza area on the outskirts of Tokyo.

Pasona O2 founder Yasuyuki Nambu said that by building a farm underground, Japan “could have three harvests in a year”.

Because of its four-season cycle, Japan only has one harvest time a year, while Indonesia’s two seasons of dry and rainy allow it to have up to three harvests.

And with the skyrocketing price of land in Japan, Pasona O2 is a cheaper alternative for growing plants and crops, Nambu said.

Commenting on Japan’s capabilities in farming with such advanced technologies, Kalla said Indonesia could “do better” with the same technology.

“It turns out that with the help of technology, farming can be done everywhere,” he said.

“That means that coupled with our sunlight and soil, we can do better.

“We won’t be [growing plants in basements], but we need to do more to maintain food self-sufficiency and raise food exports.”

Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy, produced 38.6 million tons of milled rice in 2008, a 5.5 percent increase from 2007.

Rice output may jump to 40 million tons this year, opening the door for the country to export a maximum of 2 million tons, the largest amount in 50 years.

Also on Sunday, in Yokohama zoological garden Zoorasia, Kalla named a four-month-old

Sumatran tapir Labaco, which means “brave boy” in Bugis, saying it should be “easy to spell out in Japanese”.

“[Wildlife] conservation will always improve the environment and animals in Indonesia. Such conservation of endangered species is being developed in Indonesia,” Kalla said in a meeting with Zoorasia director Mitsuko Natsui.

Natsui said the zoo expected further support from the Indonesian government in the field of animal conservation in Japan, adding, “We hope there will be more cooperation.”

The baby tapir’s mother, Maya, and father, Brending, were shipped here from Semarang Zoo and Surabaya Zoo, respectively, in September 1998.

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