Jakarta (VNA), Sept. 24 -- Indonesian President Joko Widodo on September 23 announced a plan to develop vast farm estates across the archipelago to ease the nation's reliance on imported food .

Under the plan, the farm estates will expand nearly 800,000 hectares, an area 10 times the size of neighbouring Singapore, to grow rice, cassava and maize for the world's fourth-most populous country, Widodo told a cabinet meeting.

He said the project would anticipate the world's food crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic, mitigate climate change as well as to curb the country's reliance on imported food.

The early phase has already started in North Sumatra, as well as central Kalimantan on the island of Borneo.

Eventually it may be extended to t...