From Presidential Secretariat.
Media www.rajawalisiber.com – Increasing economies of scale and the application of agricultural technology are the main steps in national agricultural development that must be taken immediately.
In this way, production costs can be cheaper, resulting in competitive prices for national agricultural commodity production.
This was conveyed by President Joko Widodo when inaugurating the opening of the 2021 National Working Meeting of Agricultural Development which was held at the State Palace, Jakarta, on Monday, January 11, 2021.
“The wide scale and agricultural technology are used properly. Those are the methods of agricultural development that we must aim for so that the cost of production can compete with the same commodity prices from other countries,” he said.
During the current pandemic, the agricultural sector occupies a central position.
Especially with Indonesia’s population of more than 270 million people, requiring agricultural management to be carried out properly and seriously.
The President said that agricultural development must be carried out in detail, especially related to commodities that currently still need imports.
“The affairs of garlic, sugar, corn, soybeans, and other commodities that are still being imported, please take note and immediately find a good design so that we can finish it,” said the President.
Agricultural development can no longer be done only by using conventional methods that have been practiced for years.
According to the Head of State, what our country needs is to build an agricultural area with a large scale economy, including a new food barn.
“That’s why I urge this food estate to be completed. At least this year the ones in North Sumatra and Central Kalimantan must be completed.
We want to evaluate what the problem is, what technology is lacking, because this will be an example, “he added.
The Head of State sees that the main problem faced by local farmers so far is the uncompetitive price of the commodities they produce.
The high cost of production because the production is carried out in small quantities causes local commodities to be unable to compete with imported commodities.
For this reason, it is necessary to increase the economy of scale so that the farmers who will later be gathered in large farmer groups have a greater farmer exchange rate while increasing the amount of production.
“If the price is not competitive, it will be difficult for us to compete so that once again this must be built on a very large area of land,” said the President.
To note, those attending the National Meeting included Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto, Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, Minister of Agriculture Syahrul Yasin Limpo, Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani, Minister of BUMN Erick Thohir, Head of BKPM Bahlil Lahadalia, to the Presidential Chief of Staff. Moeldoko. Jakarta, 11 January 2021.
Press, Media and Information Bureau of the Presidential Secretariat