"This morning, I harvested coffee with coffee farmers in West Lampung District, and we have 1.2 million hectares of coffee land, both Robusta and Arabica, throughout Indonesia," Jokowi noted during his visit to a coffee farm in Kembahang Village, Batu Brak, West Lampung, on Friday.
The president called on the agriculture minister to focus on the coffee industry in the country by boosting productivity from the current one to two tons per hectare to eight to nine tons per hectare to be on par with other countries.
According to Jokowi, West Lampung District is one of the areas with the largest coffee plantations, with a land area of 60 thousand hectares. These plantations comprise 90 percent of Robusta coffee and 10 percent of Arabica coffee and are expected to boost land productivity.
"It is our collective duty to increase the productivity of coffee plantations by considering several points," he revealed.
Those points included preparing proper equipment, making fertilizers available, reducing the planting distance between coffee plants to boost productivity, and improving the welfare of coffee farmers.
"This must be increased because the price of coffee continues to rise even though sometimes it also falls. However, every year, the price tends to increase, and the volume of export demand continues to increase," Jokowi remarked.
After his working visit to the districts of South Lampung and North Lampung on Thursday (July 11), the head of state continued his trip to West Lampung and Tanggamus districts on Friday. In West Lampung, the president took the time to harvest with Robusta coffee farmers in Kembahang Village, Batu Brak Sub-district.
Jokowi is also scheduled to check the health facilities and services, including BPJS Health at the Alimuddin Umar Regional General Hospital (RSUD), review prices of basic commodities at the Kota Agung Market, and assess health services at the Batin Mangunang Regional Hospital in Tanggamus District.
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Translator: Ruth Intan S K, Resinta Sulistiyandari
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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