Food Security and Farmers’
Welfare are the keywords in agricultural development. To achieve this, what
must be supplied and completed is basic agriculture infrastructure. Minister of
Agriculture, Suswono, stated this matter.
The government has done
much to build agricultural facilities, paddy fields, farm roads, facilitation
of agricultural machinery. But the fact is that all is still lacking and needs
to be improved again.
Therefore, Suswono hoped
that the budget for building the basic infrastructure should not rely on the
state budget (APBN), but also the regional budget (APBD) of provinces and
regencies/cities. And, there should be a lot of public investment in this basic
infrastructure.
APBN budget for agriculture
is very limited, therefore financing through the credit scheme program is
expected to run properly. So far, credit program that has been running properly
is KKPEN (Food Security and Energy Credit) for food crops, horticulture and
sugarcane; KUPS (Cattle Breeding Loan) for beef cattle farming and KPEN RP (Bio
Energy Development and Plantation Revitalization Credit) for oil palm, rubber and
cocoa. “I hope that there is a new credit scheme to finance agricultural
mechanization, because with more difficulty in getting workers in agriculture,
mechanization is a necessary”, he said.
Regarding fertilizer and
seed subsidy, Suswono, who failed to become legislative member in the Legislative
Election this year, asked for breakthroughs related to mechanism, management,
and supervision. “The budget for fertilizer subsidy is much larger than the
budget for the Ministry of Agriculture. But, the fact is that fertilizers are
scare and farmers have difficulty in obtaining fertilizer. I prefer the
fertilizer subsidy to be remove and transferred for infrastructure building”,
he said.
Because most of the
agricultural land has been damaged by excessive use of chemical fertilizers,
the use of organic fertilizer will be intensified. If last year, subsidy were
given for organic fertilizer produced by Petrokimia and its partner, the this
year subsidy for organic fertilizer processing facility, so that farmer groups
are able to produce their own organic fertilizer.
Procurement of seeds, as
well as the mechanism and the management needs to be improved, so that Prinsip
6 Tepat (the 6 right principles) can run properly. Agricultural development and
the implementation is expected to utilize the wealth of resources with regard
to economic, ecological and social equilibrium.
Agricultural development is
also to strengthen the foundation in order to avoid middle income trap by
increasing income and welfare of farmers as part of community. Demographic
bonus is a challenge and an opportunity for the agricultural sector. The
increasing number of productive-age people will provide opportunities for
raising income and purchasing power so that the needs for quality and healthy
food will increase. With farmland which is increasingly small, agrarian reform
is a must.
Grand Strategy of
Agricultural Development 2013-2045 that has been made by various experts and
practitioners prioritizes development of bio-industry agriculture. The
principle emphasizes on improvement of quality, added value and competitiveness
of agricultural products, integrating
the businesses and all stakeholders in the economic scale, vertical integration
that includes both the upstream and downstream, as well as horizontal
integration covering a variety of commodities and types of businesses.
Bio-industry agriculture
requires an integrated management scheme, involving relevant institutions and
stakeholders ranging from design, implementation, services, coaching and
control. (E)
Business New - May 21, 2014
No comments:
Post a Comment