T

he government will set aside about Rp 1 trillion (US$110.34 million) from the 2011 State Budget to build the foundations for the Merauke food estate project in the country’s easternmost province of Papua, a senior minister says.

Coordinating Minister for the Economy Hatta Rajasa said Monday the funds would be used to build the food estate’s basic infrastructure, including farm clusters, roads and irrigation and power supply systems.

“About Rp 800 billion will be for the food estate’s initial development of clustering, road and water, plus more than Rp 100 billion for energy,” he told reporters at his office.

Meanwhile, the other needs will be funded by the private sector, Hatta said, without providing
the names of the investors. Agriculture Minister Suswono has said that 30 investors in the forestry sector have committed to invest in the project.

“This year we will first build basic infrastructure worth almost Rp 1 trillion to arrange the irrigation and road systems, as well as other infrastructure. Afterwards, we will invite investors,” Hatta said.

The food estate project is part of the government’s master plan to build Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate to help achieve national food self-sufficiency, eliminating the need to rely on imported food.

“The Merauke food estate project is expected to be completed in 2014, yielding a number of agricultural products such as rice, sugar cane and soybean as well as their supporting industries,” Hatta said.

Other than Merauke, he added, Papua had two other economic corridors; Timika and Mamberamo.

Deputy Agriculture Minister Bayu Krisnamurthi has said that the first harvest of the estimated Rp 50 trillion to Rp 60 trillion food estate is expected in 2012.

Environmentalists have expressed concern that the projects would cause massive deforestation and harm efforts to cut emissions in dealing with climate change.

However, Hatta eased the concerns, saying the food estate would not be built on forested areas.

“[The Merauke food estate] will cover 570,000 hectares of land excluding forest land,” Hatta said.

An assessment by Greenomics Indonesia said only 300,000 hectares of production forest in Merauke could be converted for other purposes, including food estate projects.

Of the total 4.7 million hectares of land in Merauke, 95 percent was still forested with some 3.42 million untouched, the assessment said.

Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan said the government would seek the House of Representatives’ approval to deliberate the Papua Spatial Planning bill.

The food estate area could be expanded to up to 1 million hectares if the initial project runs well, he said.