Govt to raise soybean on 200,000 ha
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The government is ready to cultivate soybean on 200,000 hectares of land across the country this year to raise its soybean production, an Agriculture Ministry official said.
The national soybean output once hit a high record of 1.8 million tons in 1992 or an increase of 300 percent from 600,000 tons in 1998, the ministry`s director general of food crops, Sutarto Alimuso, said on Friday.
"By cultivating soybean on 200,000 hectares of land, we hope the national soybean output will return to the 1992 production level," he said.
The government would encourage farmers to use idle land in more than 100 districts to cultivate soybean, he said.
In additon, it would also provide them with seeds and counselling once every two weeks, he said.
The skyrocketing of the soybean price in the past few weeks has attracted the attention of many quarters in society.
Some 3,000 tofu and tempeh producers staged a rally outside the Presidential Palace on Monday, urging the government to stabilize the soybean price which had jumped almost by 100 percent in the past year.
Trade Minister Mari Elka Pangestu said on Monday the government would reduce duty on imported soybean to five or zero percent from 10 percent previously to lower its price at home.
She said soybean price had almost doubled to US$600 a ton in the past seven months due to declining production in the US which has been Indonesia`s main soybean supplier.(*)
The national soybean output once hit a high record of 1.8 million tons in 1992 or an increase of 300 percent from 600,000 tons in 1998, the ministry`s director general of food crops, Sutarto Alimuso, said on Friday.
"By cultivating soybean on 200,000 hectares of land, we hope the national soybean output will return to the 1992 production level," he said.
The government would encourage farmers to use idle land in more than 100 districts to cultivate soybean, he said.
In additon, it would also provide them with seeds and counselling once every two weeks, he said.
The skyrocketing of the soybean price in the past few weeks has attracted the attention of many quarters in society.
Some 3,000 tofu and tempeh producers staged a rally outside the Presidential Palace on Monday, urging the government to stabilize the soybean price which had jumped almost by 100 percent in the past year.
Trade Minister Mari Elka Pangestu said on Monday the government would reduce duty on imported soybean to five or zero percent from 10 percent previously to lower its price at home.
She said soybean price had almost doubled to US$600 a ton in the past seven months due to declining production in the US which has been Indonesia`s main soybean supplier.(*)