INDONESIA'S CORN IMPORTS DECLINING LAST YEAR

Makassar, Oct 20 (ANTARA) - Indonesia's corn imports have declined to 400,000 tons in 2007 from 600,000 tons in the previous years following increasing national production, agriculture minister Anton Apriyanto said here on Monday.
The country's corn production reached 14.8 million tons last year from 3.8 million hectares of corn plantations, he said at the 10th Asian Regional Workshop on Corn.
He said the level of corn imports and exports this year was quite equal so that the domestic need could be met by production centers in several corn producing provinces such as East Java, Central Java, Lampung, North Sumatra and South Sulawesi.
The minister said based on forecasts the country's corn production in the second quarter this year would reach 18 million tons or rose around four million tons from 2007.
The rise would make the country self-sufficient in corn, he said adding that the meeting would affect on how farmers increased their corn production and quality.
South Sulawesi governor Syahrul Yasin said on the occasion the province's corn production this year reached 994,981 tons from 261,490 hectares of corn fields.
"The province is now ranked fifth among corn producing regions in the country after East Java, Central Java, Lampung and North Sumatra," he said.
He said the province's corn production was expected to rise to 1.5 million tons in 2009.
He said corn was farmers' second source of income in the region after rice whose production also rose to reach a surplus of 1.3 million tons.
T.A022