Indonesia to import 2m tons of corn this year

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia will import about 2 million tons of corn this year to meet the surge in the demand from animal feed industries and food producers, according to the Indonesian Seedling Association (Asbenindo).

Andy Gumala, the head of the food plants department in the association, said here on Friday that this year's import figure represents a 66 percent increase from about 1.2 million tons of corn imported in 2000.

Indonesia is still unable to fulfill all the domestic demand, which is expected to increase to 12 million tons this year from 11 million tons in 2000 because farmers still prefer to grow traditional corn rather than the highly yielding hybrid corn, he said.

"It's hard to boost local corn production because farmers mostly still prefer to use non-hybrid corn seeds," he said after addressing a seminar on the strengthening of private sector and Non Government Organization (NGO) roles in raising food crop production.

According to the latest data from the Central Bureau of Statistics, the corn plantation area did not increase in the year 2000, staying at the previous year's figure of 3.45 million hectares, but well short of the 3.81 million hectares in 1998.

Only one tenth of the total area devoted to corn cultivation was planted with hybrid seed.

Although the hybrid corn could double the harvest, the highly yielding corn is not yet popular amongst the country's farmers.

Andy said the farmers were discouraged from using the hybrid seed because the hybrid corn requires special processing equipment, usually difficult to find in rural areas.

He said that the government should give more low-interest credits to corn farmers in a bid to reduce corn imports. (05)