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Prabowo optimistic about food estate program, self-sufficiency
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A worker uses a tractor to plow land designated for the food estate program in Tewai Baru, Gunung Mas regency, Central Kalimantan, on March 6, 2021. (Antara/Makna Zaezar)
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resumptive president-elect Prabowo Subianto has predicted that Indonesia will be able to achieve food self-sufficiency through the food estate program in the next two to three years.
"The noble ideal of realizing food self-sufficiency would have been almost realized if the monetary crisis of 1998 had not occurred," Prabawo said at a graduation ceremony on Thursday for students of Kebangsaan Republik Indonesia University in Bandung, as quoted by investor.id.
“Therefore, the delayed aspiration must be realized now.”
Prabowo was also confident that the country could become a global food production hub in the next two to three years as Indonesia was an agricultural country filled with abundant natural resources.
Nonetheless, the food estate program has faced opposition in some quarters, with critics saying the program is a waste of state funds.
Despite the criticism, Prabowo said he was confident that the program would lead to food self-sufficiency.
"Indonesian intellectuals criticized me, criticized the concept of a food estate. Some want to import food from abroad,” he said.
