Agricom.id, JAKARTA  – Minister of Agriculture, Syahrul Yasin Limpo (SYL) told that food estate in District of Pulang Pisau, Central Kalimantan Province starts to harvest next week. “From the plan, we are optimist that we could do it well,” SYL said in the meeting with Indonesian Legislators in Gedung DPR/MPR, Senayan, Jakarta, Monday (08/02/2021) as in the official statement to Agricom.id.

Food estate development in the province was planned to cover 30.000 hectares. In specific in District of Pulang Pisau, the available areas cover 10.000 hectares. The cultivation covers 9.837 hectares, and the planting covers 8.838 hectares.

SYL also mentioned that food estate in Central Kalimantan is different from others, such as, Aceh and Java because the areas are mostly swamp and it is the challenge to cultivate. But he denied if the program is said to be a failure. “How could you say it is ‘fail’ if the crops would just start?” he said.

In the meeting with Commission IV, Indonesian Legislators, he also committed to develop food estate as the way to fulfill food supply nationally. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in the early days of pandemic reminded that food crisis could potentially hit the world.

“We would keep doing improvements there. Food estate could be the answer to fulfill food supply,” he said.

Food estate which is developed by Ministry of Agriculture and other related ministries and institutions is in corporate – base. With this concept, the government is easier to facilitate the financial helps and mechanism massively. “If we make corporate, we could do intervention through kredit usaha rakyat. We do not develop single commodity but we do horticulture and plantation ones,” SYL said. (A2)