Jakarta: President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) inspected the land where sorghum was harvested as an alternative food source apart from rice and corn to face the food crisis warned by the World Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Based on the official video uploaded, President Jokowi and Mrs. Iriana planted sorghum seeds using sneakers. The head of state was also seen riding a combine harvester on a sorghum field.
"We want many alternatives, many choices that we can work on in our country, food diversification, not only depending on rice, because we have corn, sago, and sorghum," President Jokowi noted in a press statement via a video uploaded on the Presidential Secretariat’s YouTube account, Thursday.
President Jokowi explained that currently, food prices in the world had increased. According to the head of state, Indonesia should have a big plan to deal with the food crisis, as warned by the FAO.
East Sumba District has land suitable for planting sorghum or grain crops, with a total area of 60 hectares.
The yield of sorghum in East Sumba reaches five tons per hectare. Farmers can generate income of around Rp50 million per hectare in one year, or Rp4 million per month.
The head of state praised the productivity of the sorghum crop, which not only provided large incomes for the farmers but also absorbed a lot of labor.
"We have seen for ourselves that the results are very good, the economy is also coming in, and we can recruit a lot of our human resources, and the results per hectare per year can be netted at around Rp50 million, which is very good," President Jokowi affirmed.
In future, President Jokowi plans to expand the land for cultivating sorghum in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) Province as an alternative food source apart from rice and corn.
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