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President Director of the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) Budi Waseso during a visit to the planned food estate area in Central Kalimantan. (ANTARA/HO-Bulog/sh

State Logistics Agency (Bulog) readied land to build a warehouse in the food estate area under the government’s development plan on 165 thousand hectares in Pulang Pisau, Central Kalimantan, Bulog's President Director Budi Waseso, stated.  

The agency is designated as an off-taker for the farmers’ yield to support food self-sufficiency in the nation.

Under the government's food estate establishment project, Bulog will partake in building a warehouse and rice milling plant in the district.

"Of the total 165 thousand hectares of food estate, production has begun in some 48 thousand hectares of paddy field in Pulang Pisau. It means that production will increase, as other areas have entered the planting season. This will become a new source for food self-sufficiency in Indonesia," Waseso stated in Jakarta on Tuesday.

The 48 hectares of paddy field has produced four tons of rice per hectare annually, he noted.

Development of the warehouse and rice milling plant is expected to be completed in the near future and become operational in October 2020, Waseso remarked.

"We applaud the government's efforts to establish the food estate in Central Kalimantan. Bulog, as part of state-run companies in the food cluster, will serve as an off-taker," he affirmed.

Waseso stated that the land for the food estate has offered a new ray of hope for boosting food self-sufficiency in Indonesia and a solution to tackling the threat of food crisis owing to the drought, as warned by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Currently, Bulog has 1.4 million tons of rice stocks to meet domestic demand.

The Indonesian government is developing a food estate project in Kapuas District and Belanti Siam Village in Pulang Pisau District, Central Kalimantan Province, under the National Strategic Program (PSN) that will be implemented within the next three years.

In 2020, at least 30 thousand hectares of land will be made available for the project, and the land size will be expanded over the next two years. (ANTARA)