Indonesian Agency for Agricultural Research and Development - IAARD online
Indonesian Center for Rice Research (ICRR) in Sukamandi again was visited by a state guest. This time, visiting ICRR was the prime Minister of Tanzania on Friday 11 September 2009. The visit was carried out in the frame of bilateral collaborations in the agricultural sector between Indonesian and Tanzanian Governments.
In his visit, Tanzanian Prime Minister was accompanied by around 30 officials from Tanzanian Ministries including the Ministers of Agriculture of Tanzania and Zanzibar. The party was greeted by the Director of ICRR, Dr. Hasil Sembiring accompanied by IAARD officials and senior researchers.
On that occasion, Dr. Hasil explained about the duties of ICRR and the results achieved so far including the release of 136 paddy varieties. When asked for confirmation about the best and most prominent variety, in Indonesia, Dr. Hasil explained that the extensive areas, various topographies, and difference consumers’ preferences in every region, there is no best variety. In this case, the Assessment Institutes for Agricultural Technology (AIAT) present in almost all provinces in Indonesia have a role to carry out the assessment on the most suitable variety for each region and disseminate the assessment results to farmers. The Tanzanian officials also expressed their interest in the development of variety tolerant to drought. The same variety is being developed in their country. During the one hour visit, the party also had an opportunity to see the Favor Laboratory. The visit was ended by the field visit to the paddy PI 400 experimental area.
The visit to ICRR was a series of visits of Tanzanian Prime Minister in Indonesia conducted from 9 to12 September 2009. Apart from visiting ICRR, the party from Tanzania also visited several related government institutions and private companies in agricultural sector such as PT. Sang Hyang Seri and PT.Pupuk Kujang.