TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Agriculture Minister Andi Amran Sulaiman has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Manpower. One key point of the collaboration is the development of 3 million hectares of rice fields and the establishment of modern agriculture clusters. According to Amran, this initiative aims to accelerate food self-sufficiency.

“Modern agriculture clusters are designed to achieve food self-sufficiency and position Indonesia as a future global food hub,” Amran said at his office in Jakarta on Monday, March 3.

Amran stated that the Ministry of Manpower will deploy 300–500 instructors to oversee the management of these agricultural areas. The program, he said, will involve 27,000 millennial farmers already registered with the Ministry of Agriculture, and is expected to create even more jobs.

He added that the initiative will focus on five provinces outside Java Island: South Papua, Central Kalimantan, South Kalimantan, West Kalimantan, and South Sumatra. “This is a major initiative. This collaboration will serve as a long-term solution for agriculture,” he said.

Amran claimed that the modern agriculture cluster program will significantly boost agriculture’s contribution to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), potentially increasing economic turnover by 30 to 40 times. At the moment, he said, economic circulation from upstream to downstream, including sectors such as services, transportation, and agriculture, stands at Rp1,300 trillion.

“This means that in the future, we could see Rp30,000 trillion to Rp40,000 trillion circulating within the agricultural sector,” he stated.

Additionally, Amran expressed hope that the collaboration with the Ministry of Manpower will generate jobs and increase farmers’ incomes. “The most important thing is to reduce unemployment and alleviate poverty,” he said.

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