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Letter: Subsidy for farmers
This is a comment on an article titled “Prospects in agrarian reform” by Muhammad Ikhwan (The Jakarta Post, Oct
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This is a comment on an article titled “Prospects in agrarian reform” by Muhammad Ikhwan (The Jakarta Post, Oct. 2).
The decline in food production is often related to competition for land utilization. There is an alarming loss of agricultural land due to urban expansion and other non-agricultural uses.
The key to stemming these negative trends is providing effective incentives focused on capacity building, market access and fair pricing to guarantee national food security.
Rice farming will never be able to compete with other land uses under rigid socialist market regulation.
Taking the National Logistics Agency (Bulog) out of the equation and allowing farmers to meet market demands is the most effective incentive for increasing rice production and allowing rice (and sugar) cultivation to compete fairly with other land uses.
Why penalize farmers by depressing the market when the objective should be as much about food security as price.
If the government is concerned about the retail price of rice it should penalize farmers rather than disadvantaging the poor. A coupon system could be an option. A more economical farming environment will help drive the land reform that is long overdue and won’t need to involve the government in a communist-style redistribution, which would inevitably decrease the size of land holdings and compromise productivity.
Larger holdings lead to greater efficiencies, like in Thailand where it has helped the nation become a major rice exporter. Free the farmers from the tyranny of Bulog. They are capable of solving the problems of declining food production.
Nairdah
Sydney
