Indonesia, Australia Study Cooperation In Garlic Development

JAKARTA, Feb 2 (Antara) - Indonesia and Australia are studying cooperation in garlic research and development in the two countries. Cooperation is to be carried out between the Research and Development Agency of the Agriculture Ministry through the Vegetable Crop Research Center and Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR). Head of the Vegetable Crop Research Center Catur Hermanto said with the cooperation, the problem related to garlic commodity such as the availability of superior variety, seeds, and cultivation techniques could be handled properly. "Availability of garlic seeds has been a problem in the development of garlic plantation in the country," Catur said here on Thursday. For a long time farmers have been reluctant to grow garlic even in areas formerly known as garlic production centers, on low price. Former garlic farmers chose to grow other more profitable crops. Now the government launched a program to boost garlic production as until the end of 2017, realization of the plan to grow the food crop financed with fund from the state budget reached only 1,720 hectares or 55 percent of the target of 3,150 hectares. Implementation failed to meet the target as garlic importers, which are required to produce 5 percent of their imports also failed meet their obligations. Importers had grown only 865 hectares of their obligation to grow 2,858 hectares of garlic plantations in 2017. In a bid to cope with the difficulty over the limited availability of garlis seeds, the Vegetable Crop Research Center and the ACIAR had held a seminar to exchange information on development of garlic research and development centers in the two countries.