"Dear PPLs whom I respect, in your hands lies the food of Indonesia. If there are issues with food, problems will arise in the country," Sulaiman stated at the National Coordination Meeting with 37 thousand PPL workers, as monitored online here on Saturday.
Sulaiman observed that President Prabowo aims for Indonesia to attain food self-sufficiency in the shortest possible time.
Consequently, the involvement of PPL, regional agricultural offices, the state logistics agency (Bulog), the National Food Agency, and state fertilizer producer firm Pupuk Indonesia is essential to support the program.
He highlighted that the Agriculture Ministry is preparing incentives in the form of up to 10 thousand motorcycles for outstanding PPL, using a strict ranking mechanism to ensure these motorcycles are awarded to dedicated personnel.
In addition, his side targets a production output of 32 million tons of rice equivalents this year.
The minister stressed that food is a critical sector, as issues in this area would lead to national challenges. Therefore, food security is an essential national priority that must not be undermined.
Sulaiman also pointed out that the world is currently facing a food and energy crisis, and several neighboring countries, such as Malaysia, the Philippines, and Japan, are struggling to meet their local demands.
Meanwhile, President Prabowo has set four key priorities in the food sector: self-sufficiency, nutritious food, biofuel energy development, and downstream processing.
With the cooperation of all parties, the minister is optimistic that Indonesia can soon achieve food self-sufficiency and maintain national stability.
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Translator: Harianto, Kenzu
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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