Prabowo targets full sugar self-sufficiency with two-year overhaul

Jakarta (ANTARA) - President Prabowo Subianto announced a nationwide overhaul of Indonesia's sugarcane sector, pledging a complete rejuvenation of the country's aging plantations to achieve full sugar self-sufficiency.

Speaking at a simultaneous harvesting event alongside the Indonesian National Armed Forces (TNI) in Malang on Friday, Prabowo emphasized that the initiative is part of a broader, aggressive national agenda to achieve self-sufficiency in energy, water and food sectors.

"Earlier, Agriculture Minister told me that there has been no sugarcane rejuvenation for 12 years. We will now rejuvenate all our sugarcane," the President stated.

While Agriculture Minister Andi Amran Sulaiman initially proposed a program to rehabilitate 100,000 hectares of sugarcane annually over a four-year timeline, Prabowo revealed that the target has been aggressively accelerated.

Following further discussions, the minister committed to compressing the nationwide overhaul into an ambitious two-year window, the President affirmed.

According to Agriculture Ministry data as of November 2025, Indonesia has 796,621 sugarcane farmers cultivating approximately 520,823 hectares of harvested land across the archipelago.

To execute these targets, the Prabowo administration is deploying the Indonesian military to deploying the military through integrated agricultural assistance programs to support farmers and clear supply-chain bottlenecks.

Specifically for the sugar sector, the Indonesian Air Force (TNI AU) is actively assisting in production across 236,048 hectares of plantations. This partnership holds a production potential of 18.386 million tons of sugarcane, which is equivalent to 1.36 million tons of refined sugar.

In addition to sugarcane, the Indonesian Navy (TNI AL) is providing operational assistance for 2,432 hectares of soybean fields, while the Indonesian Army (TNI AD) successfully supported the cultivation of 6.26 million hectares of rice fields from January to June 2026.

The President praised the joint efforts of the military, the National Police (Polri), state-owned enterprises, private companies, academics and farmers, framing the food security push as a unified national defense initiative.

"This shows that the TNI and Polri are not only the guardians of national defense and security. They are an inseparable part of the Indonesian people,” Prabowo concluded.

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Translator: Prisca Triferna Violleta, Yashinta Difa

Editor: M Razi Rahman

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