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resident Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo urged farmers on Friday to boost the yield of rice to maintain food sufficiency.

Jokowi also pledged that under his watch, the government would not import rice to meet domestic demand.

'€œI asked all farmers to be more confident in producing rice and also told them the government would not import the commodity anymore, so production should first increase,'€ said Jokowi during his visit to Jetis village in Ponorogo, East Java on Friday.

Jokowi said the government was working to improve infrastructure to allow for an increase in agricultural production.

According to the President, the program would include the construction of irrigation systems and the distribution of tractors, rice-planting machines, combine harvesters and seeds.

He said more than 41,000 tractors were ready to be distributed to farmers, besides other farming tools.

This month, the government was also expected to announce the new price of unhusked rice that would be consistent with farmers'€™ expectations, he added.

The President is on a three-day working visit to East Java that started on Friday.

Joining Jokowi on the trip are First Lady Iriana, State Secretary Pratikno and Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman.

Also present in Ponorogo were East Java Governor Soekarwo and Ponorogo Regent Amin. Ponorogo, a regency of East Java, is already in harvest season.

Jokowi had earlier said that he wanted the country to be self-sufficient in sugar, rice and corn within four years.

'€œLooking forward, we should work hard to raise the production of our agricultural products so that in three years we can be self sufficient in several commodities,'€ Jokowi said in a video conference with farmers, doctors, teachers and students across the archipelago soon after he took office in October last year.

'€œThis is not an easy target but I'€™m confident with hard work we can achieve it in three to four years.'€

To help achieve the target, Jokowi has ordered the Indonesian Military (TNI) to assist.

The Army and the Agriculture Ministry have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on cooperation in the agriculture sector.

The MoU will allow the military from regional commands throughout the country to give assistance to the local government and the respective agencies.

Under the agreement the Army will deploy 50,000 of its personnel and another 50,000 village supervisory non-commissioned officers (Babinsa) will also be involved.

The personnel will serve as agriculture field advisors, as the ministry is still short of 70,000 advisors.

Jokowi'€™s predecessor, former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, introduced self-sufficiency targets in 2009 after food prices soared, but many have not yet been met, partly due to red tape and corruption cases concerning import quotas, which caused food shortages.