We have allocated Rp35.5 billion from the state budget for the Plantation Directorate General toward these activities."Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Indonesia Agriculture Ministry, through its Plantation Directorate General, will carry out a coffee intensification program on 8,850 hectares (ha) of land at the countrys coffee production centers.
The activity aims to increase the plantation productivity and national coffee production, Plantation Director General Bambang said Friday (Jan. 6).
"We have allocated Rp35.5 billion from the state budget for the Plantation Directorate General toward these activities," he declared.
The intensification of plantation will be carried out in the form of improvement in the Robusta coffee plants on an area of 4,900ha in 22 districts, spread across nine provinces.
The improvement will also be carried out for Arabica coffee plants, covering an area of 3,750ha in 17 districts, spread across 10 provinces. There will also be an expansion in plantation area by 200 ha in two districts of Central Kalimantan.
Through improvement in plantation and expansion of its area, the directorate general has targeted national coffee production of 637,539 tons in 2017, with the total plantation area covering 1.227 million ha, Bambang revealed.
The target is lower than in 2016 where the coffee plantation acreage in the country had reached 1.228 million ha with a production of 639,305 tons, he added.
In addition to crop intensification and expansion, the directorate general will also handle plant pests, make provision for post-harvest processing tools and quality seeds to improve national coffee production, he affirmed.
The national coffee production, in the last five years, experienced a real growth of around 1.29 tons per year during the 2010-2015 period, while the productivity was 1.24kg per ha, Bambang stated.
(Uu.A014/INE/KR-BSR/B003)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
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