National Cassava Center in Lampung to Build Integrated Commodity Ecosystem

Lampung Governor Rahmat Mirzani Djausal has stated that the establishment of the National Cassava Center in Lampung represents an effort to build an integrated commodity ecosystem. “This is not merely the inauguration of a location or a research institution. This is the starting point for building an integrated cassava development ecosystem where science, technology, investment, the industrial world, and farmer welfare are brought together in one place,” the Governor said in Bandarlampung on Saturday. He said the national cassava development centre will become a national collaboration hub designed to strengthen research, increase productivity, encourage downstream processing, and accelerate improvements in cassava farmer welfare. “Lampung Province has very strong capital to lead national cassava commodity development. Around 70 per cent of Indonesia’s cassava production comes from Lampung and it is a source of livelihood for hundreds of thousands of farming families in various regions,” he said. “Nearly 500,000 cassava farmers in Lampung Province have faced sharp price fluctuations for years. This condition even triggered prolonged demonstrations when cassava prices fell to around Rp600-Rp700 per kilogram,” he added. According to him, the Lampung Provincial Government then took on a mediator role by bringing together farmers, industry, and the central government. This effort resulted in an agreement that encouraged import control policies, enabling the industry to increase the purchase price of farmers’ cassava. “Today, the price of cassava has reached around Rp2,200 per kilogram. This shows that when farmers, industry, and the government unite, the benefits can be directly felt by the community. The price improvement is not the final goal; rather, the next challenge is to increase productivity so that Lampung’s cassava competitiveness can surpass the world’s major producing countries,” he added. He further encouraged that Lampung Province should not only build a regional-scale research centre but a national-level cassava development centre through multi-party collaboration. “We must become number one in the world. Lampung has the farmers, the land, the industry, and now we are building the research. It is time to increase productivity. We hope the transformation of the cassava sector will no longer stop at merely increasing production, but will develop into a foundation for strengthening the bioeconomy-based industry, enhancing national competitiveness, and ensuring sustainable farmer welfare,” he said.