JK: Self-sufficiency in Rice Only Required Effort of 6 Months
The Former Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia, Jusuf Kalla (JK), said it only took time of six months for making efforts to realize the self-sufficiency in rice. “Once I only need time of six months for making various efforts to realize the self-sufficiency in rice. Actually it’s easy in order that we do not have to import rice. We need to coordinate with every area and fix the factors related to rice production i.e. seed, fertilizer, irrigation, and harvesting,” said Jusuf Kalla in the event of Pekan Inovasi Mahasiswa Pertanian Indonesia (PIMPI), Sunday (18/11) at Campus of Bogor Agricultural University (IPB) Darmaga. The activity pursued by 18 universities throughout Indonesia was held by the Unit of Student Activities (UKM) Forum for Scientific Studies (Forces) IPB.
For the sake of realizing the self-sufficiency in rice, Jusuf Kalla got around areas, came to the governors and the regents to encourage the improvement of rice production factor. Hence in 2008, 2009, and 2010, Indonesia was skimpy in importing rice. “But after I leave, Indonesia imports rice again. Therefore we need the strong political will from the government to minimize the food import especially rice,” continued Jusuf Kalla.
According to Jusuf Kalla, the business in the agricultural field was different from other businesses. The entrepreneur should be willing to learn the storage technology and have the appropriate marketing or networking. “The agricultural product in general is perishable, we need to master the storage technology and have the obvious marketing network. If we do not master both, it indicates the business will be less successful,” he said. Except for, said JK, the agricultural product which could be saved a bit long such as cacao, oil palm, and maize.
JK also suggested if we wanted to plunge in the agricultural business we should select the commodity which did not make people angry and was easily to be manipulated its price. More precisely, it was selected the plantation commodity which production was sustainable such as rubber, resin, and the ilk.
The activity which was attended by more than a thousand participants also presented the resource persons amongst all: Deputy Secretary General of Dewan Hortikultura Nasional who was also the Alumni of IPB, Gun Soetopo, Founder of Martha Tilaar Group, Dr.Martha Tilaar, and Researcher of IPB, Prof. Endang Gumbira Said, who managed to produce the gambier innovation for laxative iron rust. (ris)
