March 23, 2011
 

Indonesia to cultivate wheat to reduce dependence on imports

The East Java provincial administration from Indonesia intends to cultivate wheat on mountain slopes and uplands to lower import dependence.

East Java imports large volumes of wheat grains and the country's expenditure on imports of that food commodity reach about IDR6 trillion (US$667 million) a year, a local official said.

Achmad Nurfalakhi, an official of the provincial office of the agriculture ministry, said the preliminary plan is to cultivate the crop in 2,000 hectares of land that could yield 5,000 tonnes of wheat grain per year.

The choice of the land area about 1,000 metres above sea level is suitable for the crops, Nurfalakhi said. He added that although the production target is still much lower than the demand in East Java, it would still help to reduce imports.