JAKARTA,Indonesia - The Indonesian agriculture ministry is seeking for 500,000 hectares of land to boost soybean production up to the self sufficiency level of 2.2 million tons per year from last year's 907,030 tons per year, a minister said here on Tuesday.

Indonesian Agriculture Minister Suswono Arsyaf said that the ministry still expected the land could be taken from over 7 million hectares of unused land promised to be given by the country's forestry ministry.

"Therefore I target 500,000 hectares of land, so that we can achieve self sufficency," he said at the State Palace.

Indonesia's soybean production was forecast to decrease by 36, 960 tons to 870,070 tons this year, the Statistic Bureau has announced.