"The quality of the seed is very important, followed by maintenance and harvest method," he stated at the 51st Cocotech Conference in Surabaya, East Java, on Monday.
He then urged coconut farmers to pay attention to the quality of coconut seeds, including the maintenance efforts. Seeds are usually only planted and revisited once they bear fruit for harvest.
Jokowi remarked that when properly cared for, superior seeds will produce quality coconuts in large quantities.
"Maintenance is also important. Usually, we plant and leave it without maintenance," he remarked.
In addition to the seed quality and maintenance effort, the president also drew attention to the harvesting method. This method covers the aspects of the quantity and quality of human resources (HR), including their skills.
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According to the head of state, Indonesia has 3.8 million hectares of land, with production reaching 2.8 million tons per year. Hence, it requires appropriate harvesting methods, including estimating the number of human resources required for picking coconuts from tall trees.
"If we have millions of coconut trees, we must prepare the people with the ability to pick the coconuts. If the coconut tree is 20 meters high with millions of coconut trees, then we must calculate the number of people to pick the coconuts," he remarked.
The president also pressed for innovation in picking coconuts from the ground, thereby annulling the need to climb tall trees for this task.
"It would be better to use technology to pick the coconuts from a tree with a height of 20 to 30 meters. Do not only pick a few. The amount should be larger," he remarked.
He also stated that Indonesia ranks second in the world in terms of coconut commodities, with the provinces of North Sulawesi and Riau being the regions with the highest coconut production potential.
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Translator: Astrid Faidlatul H, Resinta Sulistiyandari
Editor: Yuni Arisandy Sinaga
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