Indonesia's soybean imports still high

Indonesia's soybean imports still high

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian imports of soybean were projected to
stand at 600,000 tons this year, similar to the previous years'
figures, as there are no signs local farmers have expanded their
soy fields, a senior official of the Ministry of Agriculture said
on Saturday.

Director of beans and tubers at the directorate of food
production R.M.H. Manurung said Indonesia would only produce 1.6
million tons of soybean this year, while the country's soybean
demand was around 2.2 million tons.

"We'll have to continue importing the commodity as the farming
areas are too small to produce adequate soybean for the country,"
he was quoted by Antara as saying.

Indonesia imports soybean mainly from the United States, he
added.

According to him, local farmers had limited their farm land
for soybean because the yield of the commodity was too low.

"The farmers think that soybean is not a viable prospect," he
said, adding that the farmers also faced difficulties in
obtaining good seed.

To solve the problem, the ministry was trying to introduce
some cultivation methods, including the use of herbicides, for
the farmers to raise productivity levels of their soybean farms,
Manurung said.

The ministry has also urged each regency to provide good
soybean seeds and set up a good distribution network to deliver
the seeds continuously to farmers, he said.

"If this mechanism works and farmers find it easier to get
soybean, we're sure farmers will be more interested to grow
soybean," he added.(05)