Caesar Akbar, Jakarta – A member of the Prabowo Subianto-Sandiaga Uno campaign team, Sapto Waluyo, said his team has studied Prabowo's promise on halting imports once he gets elected as president in the 2019 presidential election.
Presidential hopeful Prabowo Subianto once vowed to make Indonesia self-sufficient in the food sector which will further eliminate the needs to import food if he gets elected.
He suggested that issues regarding food commodities can be solved by pushing the country's food diversification accordingly to each region. Prabowo believes that not every region in Indonesia consumes rice daily.
"The proof is based on Budi Waseso's statement that Indonesia's rice supply is more than sufficient. However, everyone wants to import but not everyone eats rice," said Sapto in South Jakarta today, Nov. 7.
Sapto argues that other imported food products such as wheat can also be replaced. According to a study, wheat can be substituted with sorghum, despite its inferior quality compared to wheat.
"That's okay, people need to be trained the hardships of life, don't be spoiled to an extent in the meantime the country continues to pay for it," said Sapto who also urged to fight people who take financial advantage out of it.
The Prabowo camp member maintains that the most important element is to improve productivity through agriculture mechanization, which will further drive improvements into the sector such as the strategy once applied by former West Java Governor Ahmad Heryawan.