Jakarta, Aug. 28 -- Minister of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning/Head of the National Land Agency (ATR/BPN) Nusron Wahid emphasized his commitment to protecting productive agricultural land from the threat of land conversion.

He said that food security requires rice fields, while industrial and housing developments also seek affordable land, which is usually paddy fields.

"My duty as Minister of ATR/Head of BPN is to curb the rate of land conversion, so that rice fields are not converted into industrial and housing areas, or become the source of social conflict," he stated in a written statement in Jakarta on Wednesday.

He said that productive rice fields included in the Sustainable Food Agricultural Land (LP2B) must not be conver...