TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search resultsRI, Brunei to focus on peat land farming
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is leaving for Brunei Darussalam on Thursday to share knowledge on peat land farming
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
P
resident Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is leaving for Brunei Darussalam on Thursday to share knowledge on peat land farming.
President Yudhoyono is to meet Brunei Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah to discuss the issue.
“We will share expertise on the use of peat land areas for paddy fields in Brunei as we practiced in Kalimantan,” Agriculture Minister Suswono told The Jakarta Post after the meeting with Yudhoyono on Wednesday.
Indonesia will send expert staff from the ministry’s research and development division to review the use of peat land after signing the MoU, he said.
The two countries will also cooperate in capacity building through training programs and technology transfer in the sector.
“We will also use the visit to promote livestock and organic plantation,” he said.
Indonesia is home to the largest peat land areas in the region covering 20 million hectares.
The government planned to impose a two-year moratorium banning the conversion of peat land including for agriculture as part of a climate deal between Indonesia and Norway signed last year.
Peat land, formed from decayed leaves, stems and roots of plants, which have accumulated in a water-saturated environment in the absence of oxygen, stocked huge carbon emissions.
The release of emissions through conversion has been blamed as a main contributor to global climate change.
Suswono said that Indonesia had developed some projects in peat land areas in Kalimantan to help boost the country’s rice production.
He did not elaborate on these projects.
The massive conversion of 1 million hectares of peat area for paddy fields in Kalimantan developed under the Suharto era was deemed a failure.
Suswono said that Indonesia would also invite investors from Brunei to invest in livestock sectors.
Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said that the two countries would also sign a letter of intent on the fisheries sector and promote people-to-people contact.
“The big theme of the visit is
also on the cooperation of the labor issue since many Indonesian laborers are now working in Brunei,”
he said.
Manpower and Transmigration Minister Muhaimin Iskandar said that some 50,000 Indonesian workers are in Brunei.
“We want to boost cooperation on labor issues to ensure the safety of Indonesian workers in Brunei,” he told reporters.
During the visit, Yudhoyono is also scheduled to plant trees in Peranginan Tasek Lama Park in Bandar Seri Begawan, meet Indonesian citizens living in the Brunei capital, and attend an inauguration ceremony for the new Indonesian Embassy office building in Brunei.
“The state visit is expected to strengthen relations between Indonesia and Brunei.
“Concrete partnership plans in the consular, trade and agriculture sectors will improve the weight and substance of this relationship,” presidential spokesman for international affairs Teuku Faizasyah said in a press statement.
