Jakarta, Feb. 26 -- Coordinating Minister for Food, Zulkifli Hasan, said he is optimistic that with domestic rice production projected to reach up to 34 million tons, Indonesia will not need to import rice this year.

"We believe, we are optimistic, this year, we will not import rice anymore," he said at the CNBC Indonesia Economic Outlook 2025 event in Jakarta on Wednesday.

He explained that irrigation development is one of the things the government is focusing on in efforts to build national food self-sufficiency.

If the government succeeds in building irrigation facilities for 2 million hectares of land, then the harvest frequency could increase from one to two per year.

If the average productivity reaches 5 tons per hectare, he sai...