JAKARTA (The Jakarta Post/ANN): President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo has instructed the Public Works and Housing Ministry to expand the government’s food-estate programme by developing 165,000ha of land in Pulang Pisau regency, Central Kalimantan, into farmland, a senior official has said.
Minister Basuki Hadimulyono said a total of 85,500ha of land in the area already functioned as farmland so the ministry only needed to clear 79,500ha of scrubland for the development. The project aims to boost productivity by 2 tonnes of rice for each ha of land.