Southeast Sulawesi Successfully Produced 185,132 Tons of Corn

Southeast Sulawesi managed to produce 185,132 tons of corn. This figure was achieved within the last six months. The Head of the Food Crops and Horticulture Service (TPH) Nelson Metubun expressed his appreciation to the farmers.

“Farmers are very consistent in planting corn. So, production conditions are stable,” he explained in Palu (26/06/2023).

Reporting from republika.co.id, Nelson stated that corn is one of the main commodities in the food crops sub-sector. It makes this agricultural commodity a priority for development by the government.

The potential area of ​​planting area in Southeast Sulawesi is approximately 70 thousand hectares. This land is spread over 13 regencies or cities. Based on the availability of the land, it is projected that production will still be quite abundant.

According to TPH Central Sulawesi data, domestic developments in and out of the corn commodity reached a total product availability of 57,004 kilograms. This figure comes from the period January to June 2023. So, this commodity is targeted to several regions. Among them are Makassar, Jakarta, Medan, Surabaya, Ternate and Padang.

The total availability of corn production at this time is still sufficient to meet the needs of public consumption. On average, each area requires 600 tons corn per month. With such consumption, the total demand from January to July will be 3,603 tonnes of the current supply of commodities.

“There are still 181 thousand tons of excess production or a surplus,” he added.

Nelson hopes that in the next six months, farmers will continue to increase corn production. It is done to maintain the stability of regional food security.

“We want this year’s production to exceed the 2022 production realization of IDR 482,117 tons of dry corn. Before 2023 end,” said Nelson.