PALMOILMAGAZINE, PANDEGLANG — Heru Tri Widarto, Secretary of the Directorate General of Plantations at the Ministry of Agriculture, stated that the plantation sector plays a key role in supporting the government’s goal of strengthening food and energy self-sufficiency.
He made this remark during an inspection of a pumping irrigation system in Kalanganyar Village, Pandeglang Regency, on Tuesday, October 22. He later attended a session focused on compiling provisional statistics for 2024 and estimates for 2025.
Heru highlighted the importance of various programs in the plantation sector, including expanding dry rice cultivation (paddy gogo) and increasing plantation acreage. He emphasized that pumping irrigation will be instrumental in boosting agricultural production.
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“The government is strongly committed to food and energy self-sufficiency, particularly through supporting palm oil and sugarcane,” Heru said, citing Agriculture Minister Adi Amran Sulaiman’s focus on achieving these targets.
One crucial thing to do is about to get data accuracy about the two commodities. “The data should be clear and accurate namely in making the maps where sugarcane grows, such as, in East Java, Central Java, and West Java. Do not be overlapping with other commodities,” Heru said, as Palmoilmagazine.com quoted, Thursday (24/10/2024).
He thought, the sugarcane price was at the profitable level, would deliver chances for sugarcane producer centers/regions to reinforce their production. Heru also said that the provinces that would multiplying the plantations and paddy gogo would get more supports from the government.
“If the regions clearly would develop, the (government) would focus on the financing. Go ahead and show your positive performance,” he said.
Besides palm oil and sugarcane, some other plantation commodities would be coffee, cocoa, and tobacco. These would get special concern for they are so expensive now. “Even though it is not easy, this is our same responsibility to deliver the best contribution for the agriculture in Indonesia,” Heru emphasized.
Sago that could potentially support food self-sufficiency, was also the focus. He said it would be significant to get data optimization and publish cultivation documents for palm oil, rubber, coffee, coconut, pepper, and cocoa. It means the plantation sectors would be more active to help the government realize food and energy self-sufficiency. (P2)
