Govt Expects 3mn Tons of Rice Output Increase
31 March 2015 13:48 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman said that there will be an additional rice production of three million tons this year, "provided that productivity levels are at more than five tons per hectare," he said after a coordination meeting on food self-sufficiency yesterday.
With the additional production, Amran hopes that Indonesia will be able to have self-sufficiency as soon as possible. Last year, the national rice production volume is estimated to reach 40 million tons.
"We estimate there will be an increase of 700,000 hectares of harvest crops compared to last year," he said.
Hasil Sembiring, director general of food crops, said the Ministry of Agriculture has raised its harvest target for the period of April-September2015.
"We estimate that 6.8 million hectares of field can harvest," he said.
This target is greater than the average area of crops, which is normally around six million hectares.
URSULA FLORENE SONIA | AHMAD NURHASIM
