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With more trained farmers, Indonesia reduces corn imports
In 2014, Indonesia imported roughly 3.6 million tons of corn, while in 2018, the number had been significantly reduced to 180,000 tons.
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President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo hands over a photo of himself and a group of agriculture instructors to an instructor from Purbalingga, Central Java, during a gathering of freelancer agriculture instructors at Jatidiri Sports Stadium in Semarang on Feb. 3. (JP/Suherdjoko)
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resident Joko “Jokowi” Widodo said the country needed at least 40,000 additional agriculture instructors to boost production and reduce food imports.
He said the country had around 17,000 of such instructors currently, and they had managed to help farmers improve productivity of various commodities, including corn.
In 2014, Indonesia imported roughly 3.6 million tons of corn, while in 2018, the number had been significantly reduced to 180,000 tons.
“That’s what we got from improving our productivity,” Jokowi said during a meeting with hundreds of agriculture instructors in Semarang, Central Java, on Sunday.
Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman said separately that the food sector had experienced rapid progress, thanks to the instructors.
“Current food inflation is 1.2 percent, which is a far cry from 2014’s 10.5 percent. The agriculture instructors have contributed to the improvement,” said the minister.
He added that the agriculture sector had provided a higher contribution to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
Amran said agriculture had contributed Rp 1.46 quadrillion (US$104.6 billion) to GDP, an increase of more than 62 percent from Rp 900 trillion in 2014.
Indonesia Agricultural Instructors Association head Gunadi hoped the government would promote all of the instructors to civil servants to improve their welfare.
“In 2017, at least 6,058 instructors were promoted to civil servants. We hope the rest are also promoted [in the near future],” said Gunadi.
Jokowi pledged to take care of the matter as long as it was in line with prevailing regulations.
“We will see whether the law permits us to do so,” said the President. (vny)
