VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The Agriculture Minister, Amran Sulaiman, is determined to achieve self-reliance in garlic production by 2021.

The country needed to produce 550,000 tons of garlic from 89,000 hectares of land to achieve self-reliance in garlic production, the minister said after leading a ceremony to commemorate the birth of the state ideology Pancasila in Jakarta on Friday.

"The program must be realized. We must be able to reverse the current condition where 96 per cent of the garlic needed is still imported. We must be able to achieve self-reliance in garlic production and export garlic in 2021," he pointed out.

In 2017, garlic was grown on 2,000 hectares of land. The Agriculture Ministry had identified 600,000 hectares of land as suitable to grow garlic, he said.

The government would provide high-yielding seeds, increase the area of garlic plantation, and control imports, said the Minister. Every garlic importer would be required to plant enough garlic to produce 5 per cent of his or her import quota.

The Minister said garlic plantations would be expanded through state budget funds, farmers` self-financing activities, and investment. (ANTARA)