JAKARTA, July 17 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto said Friday that the government aims to complete a nationwide sugarcane replanting program within two years after plantations went more than a decade without large-scale rejuvenation.
Speaking during a sugarcane harvest in Malang, East Java province, Prabowo said Agriculture Minister Andi Amran Sulaiman had informed him that no major sugarcane replanting had been carried out over the past 12 years.
The government has shortened the program's implementation period from four years to two, he said.
The initiative is aimed at increasing domestic sugar production and supporting the development of bioethanol as part of Indonesia's broader push for food and energy self-sufficiency. ■
