Soybean output should rise: Minister

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Agriculture Sjarifudin Baharsjah asked private investors yesterday to help increase national soybean production to cut back imports which reached 600,000 tons last year.

Sjarifudin told a press conference that Indonesia would need an additional 300,000 hectares of soybean plantations -- with a productivity of two tons per hectare -- to offset imports.

Last year, domestic demand for soybean was 2.3 million tons but production was only 1.7 million tons, with a productivity of 1.1 tons per hectare.

For the 1996/1997 planting period, the area of soybean plantations dropped by 27.08 percent to 294,159 hectares, from 403,380 hectares in the 1995/1996 period.

Sjarifudin said that as an initial step, private corporations were expected to help open up 10,000 hectares of soybean plantations.

This was seen as a progressive step to reduce imports of this commodity, he said.

"President Soeharto has ordered the Ministry of Agriculture to support the private sector in the development of soybean plantations," Sjarifudin said.

He acknowledged that land for new large plantations was hardly available in Java.

"In addition, 10,000 hectares cannot be comprehensively done in one area, but it is possible to accomplished in several areas each with a size of 100 hectares," he said.

Sjarifudin said the government would assist private companies by providing information on proper cultivation areas, weather, appropriate seeds with primary varieties, government authorization as well as training and technological know-how for workers.

When asked about loans for soybean farmers and subsidies for fertilizers, the minister said those issues were not under his authority.

Sjarifudin also said soybean cultivation in Indonesia encountered many obstacles.

The main obstacle in raising soybean production at present was that there were too few soybean high-yielding varieties available. Most of the existing soybean seeds were of low quality with slow harvesting tenure and low productivity, he said.

According to Director General of Food Crops and Horticulture Amrin Kahar, another problem was Indonesia's tropical climate which was inappropriate for cultivating soybean. Subtropical areas were more appropriate for soybean, he said.

Sjarifudin said soybean was also subject to many plant diseases which resulted in high costs for pesticide and insecticide.

When farmers were asked to plant soybean, they had difficulty in selling their produce due to the poor structure of the domestic market and the lack of assistance from the government.

Furthermore, many soybean plantations are developed in soil with a low level of acidity. Hence, their productivity is very low -- 1.1 tons per hectare as compared to the normal productivity of two tons per hectare. (10)