The Minister of Agriculture of the Republic of Indonesia, Andi Amran Sulaiman held a bilateral meeting with the Ambassador of Thailand Papan Disatate. This meeting aims to invite the Thai government together to strengthen food security in the ASEAN regional region. According to him, Thailand and Indonesia both have a lot of experience in making swamps into productive land.
“Thailand turns out to have experience in managing dry and wet land (Swampland and Whiteland). Now we will try collaborating with them because we have managed 400 thousand hectares,” Amran said, in a written statement, Tuesday (11/28/2023).
“We are collaborating. Who knows there is technology that we can use, and our technology can be used as well. We are intended for optimization of swamp land whose potential for the agricultural sector has 10 million hectares,” he continued.
It is known, Indonesia is currently focusing on increasing the production of strategic commodities to reduce import policies that have reached 3.5 million tons. One of them is by optimizing 10 million hectares of swamp land spread throughout Indonesia, between in South Sumatra, South Kalimantan, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, Riau, Bengkulu, South Sulawesi and other regions.
“God willing, hopefully in the near future we will optimize all of this because the problem of rice is a global problem is no longer a national problem. We start this December 2023. Now we must collaborate between countries,” Amran said.
Minister of Agriculture added that an increase in production must be done considering that currently the Central Asian region is facing the same crisis threat, the food crisis. In addition, Indonesia is also faced with import policies that must be suppressed through self-sufficiency achievements.
“We do have to suppress imports by increasing production. Therefore, we use water management technology with good water circulation so that rice grows well. I ask for December to meet, we must move quickly because this is a world problem not only Indonesia’s problem,” said Amran.
Amran added that cooperation with swamp land optimization was not only with Thailand, but also several other countries. Meetings with other countries will be scheduled in the near future.
“Our hope is not only an increase in rice production to press imports but also we target rice exports to Thailand. We can prove the export. We must be successful in rice. This can definitely be,” Amran pleaded.
Thailand’s ambassador to the Papan Disjected Indonesia said that collaboration and food cooperation with Indonesia had been carried out for a long time, especially in strengthening food security in the ASEAN region.
As is known, Indonesia and Thailand have an agricultural MoU that includes market and investment access. The MoU according to Papan provides a strong foundation for Thailand to collaborate in various aspects to encourage sustainable agricultural development. Papan added that this meeting also strengthened the commitment between Indonesia and Thailand to have the same attention to the importance of rice as the staple food of the community.
November 28, 2023, detikFinance
(https://finance.detik.com/berita-ekonomi-bisnis/d-7060992/ri-thailand-siap-perkuat-ketahanan-pangan-di-kawasan-asean)