The Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture recently sent 30 core farmers from the Karawang area to Taiwan for two weeks of training under the Modern Agriculture Demo Farm in Karawang (MADFK) project being promoted by the Council of Agriculture (COA) and Indonesia’s Ministry of Agriculture. Today (November 14), a closing ceremony was held at the COA to mark the end of the training program, with Tuey-chih Lee, Deputy Minister of COA personally handing out certificates for completion of the course. Lee expressed his hope that after the Indonesian trainees return home they will share their experiences on the MADFK project in order to upgrade overall agricultural technology and development in the Karawang area. He also expressed hope that the MADFK project model conveying the Taiwan agricultural experience can in the future be successfully spread to the entire country of Indonesia and other New Southbound Policy partner countries.

　　In his remarks, Deputy Minister Lee stated that Taiwan has promoted the Agricultural New Southbound Policy to deepen cooperation with Southeast Asian countries based on the spirit of mutual benefit. He hopes that through the introduction into other countries of Taiwan’s high-quality agricultural technologies, materials, seedlings, agricultural machinery, and management knowledge, Taiwan can assist to develop agriculture and raise farmers’ incomes, while at the same time creating opportunities for Taiwan agri-businesses to access the new markets, resulting in a win-win situation. These ideas are the basis for the joint promotion of the MADFK project by the governments of Taiwan and Indonesia.

　　The MADFK project is located in West Java Province, Indonesia. The project will cover 400 hectares of land in its initial stage, and a total 288 farmers from seven farmers’ organizations from four rural villages will participate in the first stage. The project will cover five major themes: irrigation, rice cultivation, the horticulture industry, duck farming, and farmers’ organizations. The MADFK will ultimately be expanded to 1,000 hectares and the model will be extended to all across Indonesia. Those who came to Taiwan for this recent training session included officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and local agricultural bureaus, researchers, local worker-extension , and core farmers. Delegation head Hermanto said that he very much admired Taiwan’s knowledge base respecting wet-paddy rice seedlings as well as the successes resulting from bringing together the power of communities through the Rural Regeneration program. Delegation member Jajang said that he was most interested in Taiwan-manufactured grain dryers, and said that he will apply to the Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture for subsidies or will purchase grain dryers from Taiwan businesses through local Indonesian farmers’ organizations after he returns home. Delegation member Trisna thanked Taiwan for providing this training opportunity, and hoped that in the future Taiwan experts will be able to provide even more valuable opinions regarding techniques and methods for testing seed germination. 

　　The COA points out that arranging for core farmers under the MADFK project to come to Taiwan for training will be helpful to upgrading overall agricultural technology and agri-business management concepts in the demonstration area. In the future the COA will continue to dispatch experts to Indonesia to provide assistance, in hopes that the MADFK project can proceed successfully and display the promotion of regional agricultural development under Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy.