"At our meeting with Vietnamese Prime Minister Cao Duc Phat, we expressed Indonesia`s wish to make investment related to food security in Vietnam," he said commenting on the results of his visit to Vietnam on March 15-16 to attend the 31st FAO Conference for Asia and the Pacific in Hanoi.
He said Indonesia also intended to cooperate with Vietnam in conducting hybrid rice research and development.
Vietnam which produced 24 million tons of rice per year recorded a rice surplus of 10 million tons per year, he said.
Rice consumption in Vietnam, with a population of 86 million, currently reached 12 million tons per year, he said.
He said rice fields in Vietnam covered an area of 4.3 million hectares compared to 8 million hectares in Indonesia.
"After all, the country is able to harvest rice thrice a year, with the productivity of every hectare reaching 5.2 tons so its unhulled rice production reached 40 million tons per year," he said.
Meanwhile, the productivity of Indonesia`s rice field reached 5.1 tons per hectare, with two harvests a year, he said.
The use of hybrid rice seeds would have the potential to raise the rice production to up to 9-10 tons a year, he said.
By establishing cooperation with Vietnam in the development of hybrid rice the production of domestic food would ioncrease, he said. (*)
Editor: Kunto Wibisono
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