Biotechnology ‘to boost’ RI’s sugar sufficiency

Plantation firm PT Perkebunan Nusantara (PTPN) XI, the only state-owned sugar producer in the country, is developing “superior” sugar cane with modern biotechnology, saying it can boost national sugar production by 20 percent.

“PTPN XI, collaborating with the University of Jember in East Java, the Bandung Institute of Technology in West Java and PT Ajinomoto, has started using biotechnology, which makes it the first state enterprise to do so in production activities,” Dodi Daud Watty, a PTPN XI research and development staff member, told reporters in a recent informal media discussion.

Since 2010, the central government has worked to revitalize Indonesia’s sugar industry. However, the country faces several challenges in boosting sugar production, including sugar plantation conditions.

Bambang Sugiharto, a professor of molecular biology at the University of Jember, said sugar cane fields needed lots of water and good drainage, meaning the ideal environment would be 100 percent paddy soil. However, most sugar cane was planted in a 3:4 ratio mix of alluvial soil and paddy soil.

Climate change and lack of land were deemed additional constraints to achieving sugar sufficiency.

Tantono Subagyo, a biotech counselor, also spoke at the discussion, saying biotechnology could counter the land shortages.

“By improving technology, we can increase production numbers per land area without expanding the amount of land or changing the cultivation system,” Tantono said.

According to Bambang, modern biotechnology, which includes genetic transformation, can improve sugar biomass, the basic material for raw sugar production in sugar cane.

Normally, sugar cane is composed of 10 percent sugar biomass, 20 percent fiber and 70 percent water. With genetic transformation, the percentage of sugar biomass could be increased 30 percent.

“Biotechnology is also environmentally friendly. In fact, it can improve the quality of our environment,” Bambang said, adding that biotechnology could also improve the quality of the sugar cane.

PTPN XI has completed a series of environmental safety tests to get a recommendation from the Environment Ministry and is waiting for a food safety recommendation from the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency.

“After the administrative requirements are completed, which will be at least a month, the sugar cane will be ready for commercial use,” Bambang said.

Besides being the ninth-largest consumer of sugar and the ninth-biggest producer of sugar cane in the world, Indonesia is also one of the world’s largest sugar cane importers.

As of mid-2010, sugar production in Indonesia fell short of the 2.74 million tons being consumed nationwide. As of May 31, 2010, Indonesia produced only 2.2 million tons of raw sugar — 73.7 percent of the target cited in the sugar industry road map set out by the Directorate General of Plantations.

source: thejakartapost