FAO Appreciation of the Ministry of Agriculture's Agricultural Industry

INDUSTRY.co.id - Jakarta - Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Representative for Indonesia and Timor Leste new, Stephen Rudgard, appreciates the progress and success of the agricultural sector in Indonesia and alleviates poverty in rural areas.

This was conveyed during his working visit to the Head Office of the Ministry of Agriculture (Kementan) RI in Jakarta, Tuesday (3/7/2018).

FAO Food and Agriculture Organization are under the auspices of the United Nations (UN). Headquartered in Rome, Italy, FAO aims to raise the level of nutrition and standard of living; increase production, process, marketing and distribution of food and agricultural products; promoting rural development; and eliminate hunger.

Stephen said he was proud to meet and discuss with the Minister of Agriculture, Andi Amran Sulaiman, who has led the Ministry of Agriculture to encourage the Indonesian agricultural industry to achieve a number of achievements in terms of food exports and agricultural technology development.

"I am proud and happy to meet and discuss with the Minister of Agriculture, to discuss the priority of future programs between FAO and Ministry of Agriculture," said Stephen.

"Being Indonesia like a hometown, because he had spent his childhood in Indonesia. This is my return to Indonesia. And now I am back to work together to develop agriculture, petrified farmers in Indonesia, "he added.

In the near future, Stephen said he would invite FAO General Director Jose Graziano Da Silva to Indonesia to see the progress of Indonesian agriculture in order to increase cooperation in improving the production and welfare of farmers. Even increase the export volume of Indonesian food to various countries.

"His coming later to see firsthand the progress of Indonesian agriculture. Because many achievements drastically increase production and export volume. The current agricultural policy has succeeded in reducing the level of poverty in rural areas, "he said.

Minister Amran added that to strengthen cooperation with Indonesia FAO, in the near future will visit to South Sulawesi, especially see direct development of cocoa and meet with farmers to give education. FAO's role is expected in providing assistance to Indonesian farmers.

"We hope our cocoa production will be bigger, from 600 tons, we are targeting more than 1 million tons," said Amran.

Agricultural Strategic Cooperation of Indonesia - Iran

In addition to FAO, at the same time, Minister of Agriculture Amran also received the visit of Ambassador of Iran to Indonesia, Timor Leste and ASEAN, Valoillah Mohammadi. Amran invites Iran to invest and cooperate in the export of imported food commodities.

"I am invited to invest in Indonesia, we are talking about how to share their capital, they also offer wheat with competitive price compared to Australia while we offer cow, sugar, corn, and also water management education in terms of wheat cultivation," explained Amran.

Ambassador Valoillah Mohammadi explained that cooperation in agriculture with Indonesia is important and very strategic because Indonesia has a diverse food commodities.

"We have a big wheat industry; Indonesia also has a diverse commodity, so it will require good cooperation."

On this visit, the Iranian ambassador also promised to encourage Iranian entrepreneurs to invest in Indonesia. This is in line with the Ministry of Agriculture program to increase investment in the agricultural sector.

Based on data from BPS, quantitatively the performance of agriculture can be seen from the production value of 2017 Rp 1.344 trillion or an increase of Rp 350 trillion from 2012. Now 2018 the population of 265 million or an increase of 12.8 million from 2014 requires additional 1.7 million tons of proven rice can be fulfilled from own production.

More detail can be seen that once always import corn feed 3.5 million tons. But in the year 2017 is not imported and even 2018 already export corn. So ever had always imported onion, since 2016 was not imported and even since 2017 has been exported. Previously imported fresh chili, since 2016 was self-sufficient.

For other commodities are also exported chicken, egg export, export 62 thousand goats and others. Export volume, commodity type, export destination country increase. The trade balance of the agricultural sector in 2017 has a surplus of around Rp 200 trillion and agricultural investment in 2017 Rp 45T is up 14% per year.

BPS data released May 17, 2018 said the value of agricultural commodity exports reached 298.5 million USD or grew 6.11 percent (month to month) and 7.38 percent (year on year). Gross Domestic Growth (GDP) in the agricultural sector in 2017-2018 rose to 4.41 percent.