Intani Chairperson Guntur Subagja Mahardika stated that food availability and resilience had been prioritized amid the COVID-19 pandemic, to which end food self-sufficiency was deemed essential to achieve national food resilience.
"West Java should again become the national food barn, and Sumedang District has the potential to be the main driver for the development of national food resilience in the province," Mahardika stated at a harvest event in Sumedang, West Java.
Sumedang has the required resource quality to achieve food resilience for West Java and the country, he remarked.
Mahardika, concurrently serving as the assistant for special staff of the Vice President, also lauded the West Java Regional Economic Recovery Committee (KPED) that had developed new farming technology and innovation to boost regional food production.
Meanwhile, West Java KPED Head Ipong Witono noted that new farming technology of soil and plant fertilizer supplements had been applied to several farming demonstration plots in the province, especially in Sumedang District.
The fertilizer supplement, branded as Bio Gro, had been tested on farmlands in North Sumedang Sub-district, and the fertilized lands produced greater crop yield, increasing by two-folds, Witono stated.
"By enhancing production, food scarcity in West Java could be complemented by new supplies," the KPED head stated.
Sumedang District Head Ahmad Munir stated that the abundance of rice crops produced in the district would make Sumedang the main food producer for regions, such as Jakarta, that have inked rice supply agreements with the district.
"With the abundance of rice crops, I am confident that we could supply our rice to other regions, as we have cooperated with the Jakarta authority to sell our rice there," District Head Munir remarked.
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Translator: Subagyo, Nabil Ihsan
Editor: Suharto
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