"We need to learn many things from Brazil," said Apriyantono who is one of several cabinet members accompanying President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on a tour of four American countries, including Brazil.
Earlier in the day, he had accompanied President Yudhoyono on a visit to the Brazilian government`s agricultural research institute, Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuaria (Embrapa).
On the occasion, Embrapa executive director Tatiana de Sa briefed Yudhoyono on the activities of the institute which was established in 1973 and being run under the coordination of the country`s agricultural ministry.
At present the institute had 8,400 workers , 2,210 researchers and around 1,000 experts on agriculture who gave advice to farmers.
Tatiana said Embraga`s work to increase agricultural production began to yield results in 1991. For instance, the country`s production of sugar and its derivative ethanol had since then increased by 139.8 percent or at a rate of 15 percent per year.
Anton Apriyantono said Brazil had the widest agriculture area in the world and therefore the country was able to be self-sufficient in food, and even the largest agricultural-commodity-exporting country.
"Of a total of 850 million hectare area of Brazilian land, 366 million hectares are agriculture area, and 210 million hectares are for cow breeding," Anton said.
Compared with Brazil concerning the width of land, he said Indonesia would not possibly be self-sufficient in various agricultural commodities.
Meanwhile, President Yudhoyono said Indonesia would apply Brazilian agricultural technology.
"We want to study the Brazilian concept of technology, research, development and other innovations in order to increase Indonesia`s agricultural production," Yudhoyono said.
He said Indonesia wanted to apply Brazilian agricultural technology to increase its own agricultural and energy production.
"We are convinced that to increase our agricultural production we need coordinated technology, and thus we want to learn from Brazil," Yudhoyono added.
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