At an online briefing during the festival in Kulon Progo, Yogyakarta Special Autonomous province (DIY), on Monday, Limpo said that currently, Indonesia needs more advanced, developed, modern, and superior seeds, and this has increased the importance of creating breakthroughs in nurseries.
"We truly hope that this festival will serve as an occasion for all parties to align movements for the sake of inventing the required technology, with a special focus on facing challenges related to the threats arising from the global food crisis. Hopefully, the crisis will not affect Indonesia," the minister remarked.
With a population of 280 million, Indonesia is in need of innovations and breakthroughs in the nursery sector, he highlighted.
A sense of togetherness is of the essence in efforts to anticipate and mitigate likely disruptions to our food resilience, he pointed out.
"We should unite our steps to address various challenges. One of the feasible ways is by preparing varieties and facilities that are immune to drought and changes in the weather," Minister Limpo added.
He expressed the hope that this year's seeding festival will be maximized as a pilot for tissue culture technology.
"With the holding of this festival, we can find the right way to test tissue culture technology in the hopes of expediting its propagation. In addition, we can also use this festival to develop hybrid or superior seeds according to the country's needs and the weather that currently hits it," he said.
Meanwhile, economic assistant to the DIY regional secretary, Tri Saktiyana, outlined five seed-related issues that still require the joint attention of all parties.
The first issue concerns the slow pace of information dissemination as well as the lack of socialization, while the second one is related to the discrepancy in farmers' preferences.
Factors concerning local agro and the limitation of seed availability constitute the third and fourth issues. The fifth issue concerns the farmers' seeds purchasing power, he said.
"We believe that the Agriculture Ministry has been taking a lot of measures to address the five issues in the hopes of finding the best and swiftest solution," he added.
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Translator: Sutarmi, Tegar Nurfitra
Editor: Sri Haryati
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