MINISTER : TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS NOW PLAYING STRATEGIC ROLE IN RI'S AGRICULTURE

Subang, West Java, July 24 (ANTARA) - Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono said technological innovations in the agricultural sector were currently playing a strategic role in increasing food production as the country's farmland area was continuing to shrink.

"Innovations in technology now play a strategic role because of the limited availability of farming areas and unavoidable agricultural land conversion," Minister Apriyantono said here on Thursday in his address to participants of the Third National Paddy Week which was launched by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Thanks to the technological innovations in paddy seeds and horticultural systems, the country's paddy production increased by 4.9 percent in 2007 and again by 4.7 percent in 2008, he said.

The government had encouraged the national paddy plant research center to boost innovations of food technology, especially rice, the minister said.

"The Research center has produced more than 200 new paddy varieties and they had been planted by 90 percent of farmers in Indonesia," he said.

With a total of 12 million hectares of farming area and an additional paddy yield of 500 kg per hectare from hybrid paddy, national paddy production stood at 5.4 million tons, he said.

With a price assumption of Rp2,200 per kg, paddy production would yield Rp1.98 trillion, he said.

The National Paddy Week, which is organized every three or four years, is taking place here from July 21 to 26, 2008.