Agriculture Minister Amran Receives Surprise Visit from Police Officials
Jakarta — Senior officials from the Indonesian National Police (Polri) visited the Agriculture Ministry (Kementan) on Wednesday, 11 March 2026 morning to meet with Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman. The meeting discussed efforts to accelerate the national corn self-sufficiency programme, including optimising expansion of planting area to over 1 million hectares in 2026.
Irjen Pol Anwar, Assistant for Human Resources to the Police Chief, stated the meeting with Minister Amran was conducted to evaluate corn planting achievements and formulate acceleration steps going forward.
Anwar noted that in the previous year, Polri received a target to promote corn planting across 1 million hectares. However, field realisation to date has reached only approximately 650,000 hectares.
“Today’s agenda, particularly concerning Polri, is how we can optimise increasing corn self-sufficiency from 2025 to 2026. Previously we were targeted with 1 million hectares of corn, but only 650,000 hectares have been planted,” Anwar said at the Agriculture Ministry office in Jakarta.
He stated that the government is now endeavouring to maximise corn planting expansion to achieve or exceed the target. This effort is conducted through strengthening from upstream to downstream sectors.
“Now we are maximising, even exceeding 1 million hectares through various upstream to downstream approaches. From environmental modernisation improvements, then seeds, fertilisers, and eventually to downstream, including storage and sales,” he said.
Beyond meeting livestock feed requirements, corn produced also has potential for the energy sector. This became one of the discussion points between Polri and Minister Amran this morning.
“We have discussed with the Agriculture Minister that moving forward we will implement this optimisation, hopefully 1 million hectares is achieved and besides feed, it can also be used for energy. That is the essence,” he said.
Nevertheless, the target for corn planting area expansion still faces various field challenges. According to Anwar, several main obstacles stem from natural factors and varying land conditions across different regions.
“There are many challenges. Particularly disasters, then weather anomalies, and then varying land conditions, there are mountainous lands, paddy fields, and so forth,” he said.
In the meeting, Minister Amran also directly responded to needs for agricultural machinery and mechanisation support to accelerate planting.
“We have communicated with the Minister regarding agricultural machinery modernisation, which the Minister executes directly. How many tractors are needed, how many planting tools are needed and so forth, which I cannot detail, the Minister executes directly,” Anwar said.
Meanwhile, when asked about plans to utilise corn for bioethanol energy, Minister Amran stated the government is still processing the scheme.
“We are still processing this,” Amran said briefly.