Biotechnology for Sustainable Agriculture Development

Abstract

The challenge of the Indonesian Agricultural biotechnologist is how to overcome the problems due to population growth and booming of all kind of industries. The crucial problems are (1) increasing demand of food, clothing and housing, (2) decreasing of fertile agriculture land, (3) scarcity of fresh water, (4) increasing of waste and polluted environment, and (5) rules of patent, environmental management, biosafety and food safety. In the year 2020 the predicted population and rice consumption in Indonesia will be 288 million people and 42.3 million ton, respectively. The increasing of population and percapita income (US$3500/in year 2008) create the biggest market in Indonesia especially for agricultural and agricultural related products. The market is also increasing due to open up sub regional free market (AFTA/2003), regional free market (APEC/ 2010) and world market (2020). The increasing of market demand, development of science and technology, regional and international cooperation are all the opportunity for the Indonesian sustainable agricultural biotechnology development