Ardiansyah Matra’is a few days before cast another shadow over the event. A 'grand design' for MIFEE was published, outlining how the project was envisioned to run. As its name suggests, the vision was of an integrated program involving animal husbandry and fisheries, as well as food crops such as rice, corn, soya and fruits. The intention was to split the land use 50% for food crops with 30% for sugar cane and 20% for oil palm. A total land area of 1.23 million hectares was envisioned for the scheme, distributed into clusters and developed in stages over 20 years. Projections of expected yields were even supplied: rice 1.95 million tons, maize 2.02 million ton, soya bean 167,000 ton, beef from 64,000 cows, sugar 2.5 million ton, and crude palm oil 937,000 ton per year.39
Many companies have expressed an interest in MIFEE, but have also been cautious both with their commitment and the amount of information that is publicly announced. In May 2010, before MIFEE was officially inaugurated but at least a year after the idea was first floated, Merauke Promotion and Investment Agency (Badan Promosi dan Investasi Daerah -BAPINDA) released a list of 36 investors which had already obtained an location permit, the first step needed in order to open a business there. As no subsequent complete list has been issued it is this list, with slight variations, is often used as an indication of what MIFEE will look like. The thirty-six planned plantations cover an area of just over two million hectares, significantly larger than the area allocated for MIFEE. Ten are for oil palm, covering around 20% of the area. Another seven are for sugar cane, covering 21% of the area. A huge 50% of the area would be covered by ten industrial wood plantations and food crops would be a relatively insignificant 8% of the area, with six planned investments. 40
39 The 'grand design' for MIFEE has not been made available online, and so the data here is compiled from secondary sources. 40 I have not been able to determine the crop for two of the investments.
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