REPUBLIKA.CO.ID,JAKARTA – Indonesian government commits to increase gradually the budget for agricultural research. The measure aims at increasing productivity of Indonesia agriculture. The Indonesia budget allocation for such research is left behind by its neighbors in Southeast Asia.
“We need to expand the research budget gradually,” said Suswono, the Minister of Agriculture, Wednesday.
In separate occasion,
The chief of Agricultural Research and Development, Haryono, added, in the last few years the government slightly increased the ministry’s research budget. The government expands the budget from 860 million IDR in 2010 to 1 trillion IDR in 2011. This year the amount will increase by 436 million IDR, to 1.436 trillion IDR.
“Yet, about 40 percent will be allocated to pay employee’s salary. There are 8,000 employees including 1,700 researchers. Another allocation will go for facility maintenance. Then the remaining 30 percent will go to operational research division,” he added.
Haryono cited, it was not necessary to double the budget to 2.872 trillion IDR. “We cannot steeply increase the budget, since our human resources are not ready yet.”
“Basically, there are three kinds of research: long term research, strategic research, and another research to support the existing agricultural program,” Haryono explained.