Target Self-Sufficiency Garlic Is Difficult To materialize

INDUSTRY.co.id - Surabaya, - Chairman of the Garlic Entrepreneur Association Fioto Nyoto Setiadi said the target of garlic self-sufficiency proclaimed by the government in 2019 will be difficult to be realized due to many problems in the field related to these commodities.

"It's not that we do not support self-sufficiency garlic achieved, but to make it difficult, one of the obstacles is the obligation to plant garlic 5 percent of the import volume plan, plus many obstacles in the field, such as about seeds and others," said Fiekom, about importers of garlic, in Surabaya, Thursday (22/3/2018).

He admitted that the government's desire to boost garlic production through garlic planting obligation for importers of 5 percent is considered quite burdensome, because the realization of garlic planting from the program is still very small.

"Up to now, importers have attempted to fulfill the requirements of garlic planting at least 5 percent of the volume of imports in order to get permission from the Horticultural Product Import Plan (RIPH), but on the ground they have many difficulties, many sectors are not ready because they seem forced," he said.

Fieko admitted the obligation to support garlic self-sufficiency is not by requiring the planting of garlic, but by requiring the importers to provide some funds for the expansion program of garlic land.

Then, the executor can be from the Agriculture Department to be distributed to farmers, so there is no fraud, and need to be involved the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to conduct supervision.

"Do not then we are asked to cultivate ourselves, find ourselves, walk to the mountain itself, considering we also do not understand about agriculture," he said again.

In addition, to accelerate the target of garlic self-sufficiency by the government from 2020 to 2019 is considered very unreasonable, because at this time the need for garlic in the country is still dependent on the supply of imported garlic.

Head of Section of Vegetable and Medicinal Plants of Agriculture and Food Security Agency of East Java Province Indrawati who attended the dialogue said domestic garlic production is only able to meet about 1.4 percent of the total needs of garlic in East Java which reaches 55 thousand tons per year.

"Currently, garlic production in East Java is only 761 tons or only about 1.4 percent of the total demand reaching 55 thousand tons, there is still a shortage of about 54,349 tons and must be met from imports," she said as quoted by Antara.

However, she is optimistic to achieve self-sufficiency target with efforts to expand garlic planting land, from 123 hectares in 2017 to 794 hectares in 2018 with an estimated production of about 4,901 tons per year.

"We are also optimistic that in 2019, garlic planting area in East Java will reach 10 thousand hectares, and supported by some garlic centers such as Malang, Probolinggo, Magetan, Mojokerto, Lumajang and Batu, plus Banyuwangi from Perhutani land," he said.