Transmigration Minister: Transmigration Areas Play a Key Role in Food Self-Sufficiency

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Transmigration Minister (Mentrans) M Iftitah Sulaiman Suryanagara stated that transmigration areas play an important role in the success of the national food self-sufficiency programme. “Take rice self-sufficiency as an example; there are several places like South Sumatra, where 40% of the rice comes from transmigration areas. Also in Merauke, almost more than 60% comes from transmigration areas,” he said in Jakarta on Tuesday. Not only rice, he said his ministry is also working towards self-sufficiency in other food commodities, such as fisheries and fruits. Several transmigration areas in Central Sulawesi have successfully become contributors to 80% of local durian production. To optimise the potential in these transmigration areas, the Ministry of Transmigration (Kementrans) has signed several memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with the Ministry of Villages and Underdeveloped Regions Development (Kemendes PDT), the Ministry of Industry (Kemenperin), the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (KKP), and the Ministry of Trade (Kemendag). In addition, Iftitah stated that his ministry is also collaborating with the Ministry of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning/National Land Agency (ATR/BPN) to ensure clarity of land status provided to transmigrants. He conveyed that providing land with clear and clean status certainty is important for implementing the transformation of the transmigration programme, which is currently focused on job creation, downstreaming and industrialisation of commodities, and improving community welfare. “The strength of our (transmigration) programme is two-fold: first, the land, because planting requires land. Second, the workforce, the transmigrants themselves,” he said. Iftitah said that to implement this transformation, his ministry is strengthening the implementation of knowledge and technology through cooperation with several universities in Indonesia in the Transmigration Patriot Programme. Collaboration is also being built with various potential investors, both domestic and foreign, one of which is the Chinese government, to market various processed commodities produced by transmigrants. “China is also one of the off-takers we are approaching to market transmigration products,” he said.