REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Soybean cultivation areas in Indonesia decreased 6.55 percent per year, but the productivity increased by 1.39 percent per year. Minister of Agriculture Suswono in Jakarta on Wednesday said that the commodity had problem of land and low price.
"The two problems is out of our authority," Suswono said.
Soybean required additional land of 500,000 hectares to meet national needs. However, Ministry of Agriculture faces difficulty in accessing land, including unproductive land acquisition, which is under the National Land Agency (BPN) authority.
The low price of soybean needs marketing regulation from Ministry of Trade. According to Suswono, if the prices fall, farmers would not plant soybean and government could not force them as they are looking for profit.
Since the last two years, State Logistics Agency (Bulog) set government purchase price, which makes farmers are interested to plant soybean.
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