"I invite our young people to utilize the unused lands in various regions as assets towards Golden Indonesia," he said here on Sunday.
Sulaiman expressed hope that members of younger generation would contribute to strengthening the national food security as they are deemed to have enormous power in solving various problems of the nation.
In addition to their high spirit, he said, the youths are the nation's most powerful members of generations and mainstays in transforming Indonesia's agricultural sector towards a better direction.
"Young people need to become honest, disciplined, and hard workers, and prevent themselves from depending on others. Please remember, our big future goal is to realize (food) self-sufficiency and make Indonesia the world's food hub," he said.
The Ministry of Agriculture is currently developing swamp land optimization with advanced technology, especially in accelerating production and reducing the production cost by up to 50 percent.
"For the young people who want to work in the agricultural sector, we are currently building modern agriculture clusters that can be sustained with around Rp10 million (around USD646.90) to Rp20 million (USD1,293.79) profit per person," he said.
The minister hoped that the youths could adopt the spirit of struggle the nation's freedom fighters had in the past. First things first, they need to ignite the love for the nation through the agriculture sector.
"You will be the leaders of the world. If you want to be successful, you must work and think about the nation's future. You must know that exports of agricultural products reach Rp500 trillion (around USD32.34 billion) and can be even bigger with downstreaming," he remarked.
Translator: Aji Cakti, Raka Adji
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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