JAKARTA: The Agriculture Ministry will construct silos to store corn harvested in 15 provinces this year to improve product quality, the director general of agricultural products processing and marketing, Djoko Said Damardjati, said Sunday.
"We will use the silos to improve corn quality because now farmers do not have proper storage. This leads to lower prices due to the poor quality of corn," he was quoted as saying by Antara news agency.
The silos, able to hold 50 tons, will cost some Rp 900 million (US$102,000) each. They will be built in a total of 39 regencies and mayoralties with more than 1,000 hectares of corn farms.
"We expect farmers will return to planting corn when the prices go up after quality improves," Djoko said.
Indonesia produces 12 tons of corn every year, well above its domestic need of five tons.
Poor distribution, however, forced Indonesia to import 1.6 tons of corn last year.
No comments:
Post a Comment