TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Presidential candidate Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has promised that he would stop the import of rice and shallots should he be elected the next president on July 9, as reported by Antara News.
"Imports of rice and shallots must be stopped," he told thousands of merchants at Sukomoro Market in Nganjuk, East Java, on Saturday.
However, Jokowi added, in order to stop the dependency on imports, the government must assist farmers in becoming independent. This was essential, he said, to the goal of becoming a producing, rather than consuming, country.
"Let's discontinue imports, we have a lot of land," he said.
Previously in the Jokowi-Jusuf Kalla ticket’s mission statement, the pair said that they would develop the agricultural sector by improving the irrigation network, which will cover 3 million hectares of rice fields. Furthermore, they promised to increase research in the agriculture and industry sectors.
ANTARA