By: M. Irfandi
The Ministry of Agriculture (Kementan) in its work program during the Jokowi era was able to both increase production and add value to commodities. This has an impact on improving the national economy.
The Minister of Agriculture (Mentan) Andi Amran Sulaiman stressed that his party would spur national garlic productivity to meet the target of self-sufficiency in 2021. According to him, the target was easily realized because Indonesia had a potential land area of 600 thousand hectares in 110 districts.
Amran said, it was not difficult to be self-sufficient given the potential of the land we had as PATB (expansion of new planting areas).
With such a large potential land to meet national consumption of garlic, it only requires 69 thousand hectares of land to be planted. The government, he said, continued to work to expand the planting area of garlic commodities to pursue self-sufficiency targets. The garlic importer who has obtained a recommendation for an import permit for horticultural products (RIPH) is subject to planting obligation of five percent of the total recommended import recommendation.
According to the calculation of the Ministry of Agriculture (Ministry of Agriculture), 73 thousand hectares of land are needed to achieve self-sufficiency in garlic consisting of 60 thousand hectares intended for consumption onions, and the remaining 13 thousand hectares is intended for seed production. In spurring this, Amran asserted, the Ministry of Agriculture involved the Task Force (Satgas) of Food and the scope of the Ministry of Agriculture to supervise the existing garlic self-sufficiency program. He said his supervision was to ensure the program did not experience technical obstacles and continued to maintain corruption prevention.
Amran ensured that his party would take firm action against anyone who toyed with people’s food. He also ensured that he would blacklist importers who were not serious about supporting the self-sufficiency and compulsory planting programs. At present, he said, there are 15 companies that have been crossed out and put on the blacklist so that they can no longer import onions.
Amran further asked the Food Task Force from the National Police to take action if the importers were indicated to hoard or food cartels and toying with stocks in the community. He also kept the internal ministry of ministries from being tempted by the mafia seduction efforts, and this has proven that the Ministry of Agriculture was given an anti gratification award for two years in a row from the KPK for its commitment to prevent corruption.
This year, Indonesia has a land expansion of up to 20 thousand hectares and will continue to grow. Amran said, the seeds planted will be replicated and extensified massively on potential lands.
Achievements in the agricultural sector can be supported by all components of the nation so that more commodities will be successfully exported and have an impact on improving the national economy.
