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ewly appointed Agriculture Minister Suswono has a big dream: To bring prosperity to all Indonesian farmers.

Suswono's dream is not made of air. He graduated from the country's most prestigious center for agriculture studies, the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB), where he earned a master's degree in agricultural management.

After his studies, Suswono went on to become a teacher, one of his pet passions. Among his jobs was teaching at an Islamic high school in Bogor and later becoming a lecturer at IPB and Ibnu Chaldun University, also in Bogor, West Java.

He has also implemented his expertise in agriculture by serving as an adviser to the forestry minister from 1999 to 2001. During the same period, Suswono was active as a member of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS).

"The government has to help farmers through agriculture reform, giving farmers more land so they can produce more crops, and also give them greater access to capital," he said, adding farmers should have at least 2 hectares of land to really prosper.

Suswono was born in Tegal, Central Java, on April 20, 1959, in a farming family. He spent his childhood in Tegal before moving to Bogor in 1984 to enroll at IPB.

Since his youth, Suswono has always been active in politics, mostly under Islam-based organizations. He was once a chairman for the Indonesian Muslim Student Organization (PII) and Islamic Student Association (HMI) in Slawi, Tegal regency.

In 2004, the father of four and married to Mieke Wahyuni, was elected a legislator from the PKS for the West Java IX constituency, which includes Tegal regency, Tegal city and Brebes regency.

He was later elected deputy chairman speaker for the House of Representatives' Commission IV, which oversees agriculture, plantations, forestry, marine and fisheries and food affairs.

The man is well known among his colleagues as a humble and honest person. He was one of the small number of legislators in his period who gave back Rp 1.2 billion (US$126,000) illegally disbursed to the House of Representatives in 2008, submitting it to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

Suswono likes writing. He has written several articles about agricultural issues in various publications. He also wrote a book, Bangkitlah Petani dan Nelayan Indonesia, or Wake up, Indonesian Farmers and Fishermen.

When he was summoned by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to join the ministerial test, he noted 10 agricultural issues the President wanted him to concentrate on.

Those issues include food security and rice self-sufficiency, boosting farm and plantation productivity, increasing farmers' buying power by raising their incomes, and lifting cattle production to achieve red-meat self-sufficiency by 2014.

"I will work hard on these," he said.