Jakarta (VNA) - The Agriculture Ministry of Indonesia has allocated 20 trillion rupiah (1.45 billion USD) for the development of post-harvest infrastructure which will be managed by four state-owned enterprises in the food sector in order to absorb farmers’ production.

The ministry organised a meeting with businesses on April 4 to discuss modernisation of the rice industry, cutting short the supply chain of rice for farmers, and reducing the price at the consumer level.

Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman said the ministry will accelerate the post-harvest process. It will focus on the provision of dryers, combine harvesters, rice milling units, and packaging units so that farmers will be able to get a better price.

The four companies have been tasked with absorbing the farmers’ unhusked rice in production areas in a bid to cut short the supply chain and lower the price.

The development of post-harvest infrastructure will accelerate the process of absorbing rice, especially for state-owned enterprises that do not have the necessary infrastructure.

Syaiful Bahri, President Director of PT Sang Hyang Seri, said the development of post-harvest infrastructure is in line with his firm’s needs as they do not have the rice milling equipment, but they have dryers and warehouses.-VNA