Indonesia government’s large-scale commercial farming or food estate project in Merauke, Papua, is expected to attract fresh investment up to $ 5.3 billion over the next five years.
However, basic and supporting infrastructure, estimated around $266-318 million, must be build first before it could actually attract investors. According to Agriculture Deputy Minister Bayu Krisnamurti, Indonesia government have tried to find some funds for the food estate project.
Several giant companies including Medco, Artha Graha and Sinar Mas have also expressed interest in investing in the Merauke project.
Commercial food estates are actually rare in Indonesia, as crops such as rice, corn and soybeans are usually grown by small scale farmers on plots of two hectares or under.
The government plans to open up an initial 27,000 hectares of plantation in Merauke. The land will be expanded up to 500,000 hectares out of the available 900,000 hectares of potentially usable land in the area. The project is scheduled to start next year.
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