Jokowi Plants Sugarcane in Indonesia's Merauke Megaproject

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Joko Widodo or Jokowi visited Sermayam Village, Tanah Miring District, Merauke Regency, South Papua Province, on Tuesday, July 23, 2024. During the visit, Jokowi stressed the government's commitment to supporting sustainable initiatives in the fields of agriculture and the environment.

In Sermayam Village, Jokowi planted the first sugarcane at PT Global Papua Abadi (GPA). He also inspected several of the company’s existing facilities and infrastructure. These include tissue culture laboratories, sugarcane nurseries, sugarcane plantations, and conservation plant nurseries.

The Sermayam Sugarcane Plantation was a National Strategic Project to support the acceleration of national sugar self-sufficiency and bioethanol as biofuel. The plantation managed by PT Global Papua Abadi covers 506 hectares of land with an investment value of Rp53.8 trillion.

The Presidential Secretariat, in a written statement, said that the food and energy sector will also be the focus of President-elect Prabowo Subianto’s administration. 

Jokowi said sugarcane planting was a strategic step in responding to the global food crisis due to extreme climate change. "Food independence, food security, and food sovereignty must be prioritized," said Jokowi.

The Sermayam Sugarcane Plantation Megaproject will build five sugar factories to process sugar cane. To support this, GPA built laboratory facilities at the nursery location, which supports research and tissue culture to produce sugarcane seeds and functions as a sugarcane research center.

The Sugarcane Seed Research and Laboratory Area in Sermayan research into the growth and development of sugarcane seed varieties from Australia. GPA collaborates with Sugar Research Australia and P3GI (Indonesian Sugar Plantation Research Center) to obtain suitable seeds for development in Merauke.

Selected seeds are grown and propagated in the main garden in the GPA Plantation area in the Jagebob area which is expected to start operating in 2027. 

DANIEL A. FAJRI

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