The government is currently developing food production throughout Indonesia, including breakthroughs in expanding new areas and intensifying existing land. The program to increase food production which is currently being focused on is the development of a food estate area, where the use of modern agricultural equipment and machinery (alsintan) is the key to success so that the growth of the domestic machinery and equipment industry is also a concern. Director of Alsintan at the Ministry of Agriculture (Kementan), Andi Nur Alam Syah said agricultural mechanization as a component of food estate development and overall food production has a very important role, this is related to the large area of land, limited manpower, and the acceleration of planting time. For this reason, the use of machine tools and irrigation is urgently needed and the Ministry of Agriculture has distributed machine tools assistance to the community thereby increasing the level of mechanization from 0.22 hp/ha (in 2015) to 2.10 hp/ha (2021). “The purpose of the agricultural equipment and machinery assistance is to assist farmers in cultivating and post-harvesting agricultural products more efficiently so that they can be more profitable. The machine tool used in the community is partly the result of innovation from the Ministry of Agriculture produced by the domestic agricultural equipment and machinery industry," said Andi Nur Alam Syah in Jakarta, Sunday (27/3/2022). Nur Alam said that to support the domestic machinery and equipment industry, the Ministry of Agriculture will continue to innovate machinery which will later be licensed by domestic manufacturers for production. From 2016 to 2021, there have been around 15 companies that have obtained agricultural equipment and machinery licenses from the Ministry of Agriculture. “Agricultural equipment and machinery that have been licensed by the domestic machinery industry include jajar legowo transplanter by 10 companies, Mini Combine Harvester by 3 companies, multipurpose soil processing equipment by 1 company, tillage machine integration with planting or Rotatanam by 2 companies and harvesting machine multi-commodity by 2 companies,” he explained.

Meanwhile, the Head of the Center for Agricultural Mechanization Development, Ministry of Agriculture, Agung Prabowo, added that several agricultural machinery technologies for horticultural crops and other food crops have also been prepared by the Ministry of Agriculture to be licensed and produced by the domestic machinery industry. For example, mound-making machines, potato planting machines, potato harvesting machines, mobile chiller room machines, pneumatic grain planting machines, corn sheller machines, and cassava planting machines. "In addition to providing suitable machine tools technology for the territory of Indonesia, the Ministry of Agriculture also invites the domestic machine tools industry to produce their machine tools to be marketed, so that they do not depend on imports," said Agung. Agung did not deny that some of the machine tools used in Indonesia still come from imports. Not without reason, this is because of the limitations of the domestic machinery engine industry to produce certain components, especially engines (motors). Domestic Content Level, namely PT Garda Nusantara Sejahtera, PT. Giat Mukti Selaras, PT. Satrindo Multi Utama, PT. Pura Barutama, PT. Corin Mulia Gemilang, PT. Taka Sarana Tekno, PT. Batera Samudra Konstruksi and CV. Adi Setia Utama Jaya," he said. "From this fact, it means that the Ministry of Agriculture has made efforts to support the industry domestic machinery and equipment through the production of machinery technology innovations from the Ministry of Agriculture to be reproduced and utilized in agricultural development in Indonesia," added Agung.

Source: https://mediaindonesia.com/economy/481186/ini-usaha-kementan-menunjuk-industri-alsintan-dalam-negeri