February 5, 2008

Indonesia's Central Java farmers to receive soy incentives

The Indonesian government announced that it would release incentives in the form of high-grade soy seedlings to farmers in the Central Java province.

Central Java governor H Ali Mufiz said that farmers in his area were not too eager to grow soy, as the growing period was much longer than other crops aggravated by unsatisfactory yields.

The local government is currently looking on using arid land for soy planting. This way, farmers would be less reluctant to grow soy, he said.

However, Economic Bureau chief Ihwan Sudrajat said the efforts to boost the production of soy may lower the area of the rice fields in the province, which will further affect the national rice production.

Sudrajat also noted that the present effort to improve the production of soy cultivation through arid land expansion will face constraints, such as water availability.

Arid land in the province reached 400,000 hectares. If arid land is about 8,000 hectares, it may reduce Indonesia's dependence on imported soy and supply from other provinces, he explained.

Meanwhile, agriculture minister Anton Apriantono said the government had allocated IDR1 trillion (US$108 million) more in state budget funds for agricultural development including corn and soy seeds procurement.