TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesia has received an award from the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) for its achievement in reaching rice self-sufficiency and for improving its food security system.

Indonesia's achievement is a major step to create a national food security, especially amid the current global geopolitical condition, IRRI's Director General Jean Balie noted while bestowing the award at State Palace here Sunday.

IRRI is committed to cooperating n the long term to bolster the food security system in Indonesia.

Balie bestowed the placard to President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) as a form of acknowledgement and thanks for Indonesia's achievement.

Meanwhile, in his remark, Jokowi informed that, since 2015, Indonesia has built many dams, rain water reservoirs, and irrigation networks.

To this day, the government has managed to inaugurate 29 major dams and the number will increase up to 38 dams by the end of 2022. The government aims to inaugurate 61 dams until 2024.

In addition, the government has also constructed 4,500 reservoirs and 1,1 million irrigation networks over the last seven years.

According to Jokowi, all of these efforts have managed to increase production results in addition to utilization of various superior rice varieties, intensification, as well as extensification.

As a result, from 2019 to 2021, Indonesia consistently managed to produced 31.3 million tonnes of rice per year; and within the last three years, Indonesia has no longer imported rice.

This achievement of rice self-sufficiency is what allows Indonesia to bag the award, he remarked.

Jokowi also thanked Indonesian farmers, regional governments, and Agriculture Ministry for their hard works and their researches.

He emphasized that the cooperation has to be encouraged so that Indonesia can produce rice to meet domestic and overseas demands.

ANTARA

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