Triastuti Andajani, an official from the ministry’s Directorate Generalof Animal Feed, said the ministry expanded the area of growing corn to 2million hectares and encouraged animal feed producers to buy domestically-growncorn.
Accordingto Triastuti, the demand for corn increases as the numberof poultry in the country is on the rise. According to the Indonesian Feed Millers Association (GPMT), local animal feed production is predicted to rise to18.5 million tonnes and it needs 9.25 million tonnes of material corn.
In 2016, the ministry and the GPMT signed a memorandumof understanding on continuing cooperation between agricultural agencies in 33provinces and local animal feed producers to buy locally-grown corn.
The ministry’s data showed imports of corn in 2016reduced to 884,679 tonnes, equal to 68 percent of the average import level inthe past five years.-VNA