Indonesia expects production of 57 million tons of rice in 2007

Indonesia targeted to increase the production of ground dry rice grains from 54.66 million tons this year to 57.4 million tons next year, due to the application of intensification program in the sector, Agriculture Minister Anton Apriantono said Thursday.

Minister Anton said that should there was no climate obstacle, it seems the vast archipelago country, with a population of 240 million, most of them living in the sector, will not import rice.

"Our target is 57.4 million tons production of ground dry rice grains in 2007 from the present 54.66 million tons," he told Xinhua.

"The increase of production is due to the applications of seed diversification, good fertilizer, improvement of irrigation, good information dissemination and credit disbursement," he said.

However, the minister said, climate is still a threat for the failure of the achievement of the target.

"If there is no climate disturbance, we at least can meet the stock sufficiency for the people, so there will not be uncontrolled-price change," he said.

Apriantono cited as an example the delay of rainy season, such as in nowadays, which led to the stock deficit until February, as a result, the government had to import over 520,000 tons of rice.

Rice is the main food for most of Indonesian people.

Source: Xinhua