Land Extensification to Produce 500,000 Tons of Salt Annually

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Land extensification in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) will produce 500,000 tons of salt annually, the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) chairman Unggul Priyanto said. Salt will be produced in 5,000 hectares of land in the integrated salt farming program.

“Land extensification [is carried out] because in total we have a deficit and national salt supply is vulnerable to [extreme] weather,” Unggul told Tempo yesterday in Jakarta.

Unggul said that the government will invest Rp1.8 trillion in the integrated salt farming that will become a pilot project. The government will later launch similar projects in West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) and South Sulawesi. “Each will have 5,000 hectares of land, so there will be 15,000 [hectares].”

Read: Govt Mulls to Expand Salt Fields

The government is planning land extensification programs to boost national salt production and reduce imports. Unused lands will be used for the extensification. BPPT has been assigned by the government to provide the technology for the integrated salt farming.

In NTT, the project will be developed at Kupang Bay. NTT, NTB and South Sulawesi have been selected due to their low rainfall and vast lands. The lands will not only produce salt but also secondary products.

Of 3.8 million tons of salt demand per year, Indonesia’s domestic salt industry can only supply 2 million tons. The integrated salt farming in the three regions is expected to produce an additional 1.5 tons of salt annually.

Unggul said that the government expects to use more land belonging to state-owned salt producer PT Garam in NTT from 400 hectares to 5,000 hectares.

DIKO OKTARA