REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, BANDA ACEH -- The dream of Aceh province to become a national cacao barn will soon become a reality as the province has significantly large cacao plantations, according to Governor Zaini Abdullah.

"Aceh has great potential to be developed into a national cacao barn because the province has 73 thousand hectares of cacao plantation with 220 thousand farmers, which is the largest on Sumatra island," the governor said here on Wednesday (3/12).

He noted that based on the mid-term development plan for 2012-2017, the province's priority program for the next few years will be to develop the agriculture sector to make the province a national food barn.

"Our dream is to make the province a national food barn, particularly for cacao, because our agricultural potential is very promising. In fact, our agriculture sector contributes over 40 percent to the region's gross domestic product," he observed.

The governor cited that Aceh has wider opportunities to become a cacao production center, especially in the western part of Indonesia because it still has some 120 thousand hectares of potential farmland that will be optimally utilized.

"We hope to exploit this potential to make Aceh Indonesia's national cacao barn," the governor remarked.

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