A

group of NGOs have called on lawmakers to include principles of food sovereignty in their draft revision to the 1996 Food Law to protect local farmers.

The House of Representatives is still drafting the revision, which will be deliberated after legislators return from recess.

Activists said the substance of bill was a far cry from the principles of food sovereignty, a term coined by supporters of Via Campesina or the Peasants’ Way, an international movement involving farmers who fight for their right to produce and define their food systems.

“Access to food is seen as only the people’s ability to purchase food, not their right to food,” the NGOs said in a statement last week.

M. Islah from the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) said that the bill did not guarantee people’s right to food as it considered food merely as a commodity.

“Anything related to food should be seen in the perspective of food sovereignty to ensure that land for food production is protected from extractive industries.”

The NGOs said they were aware that the bill stipulated that the government guaranteed the livelihoods of farmers by providing land and financing for them, but said that given current conditions, they doubted that the government could abide by the bill.

Islah criticized the government for allowing the management of land belonging to farmers to fall into the hands of companies.

He cited the example of Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate, where “private firms PT Rajawali and PT Medco Energi Papua took over management of forests belonging to local farmers and transformed them into oil palm plantations”.

Islah said the government handed over their responsibility to the companies. “What happens next to the farmers is not food sovereignty, but food vulnerability,” he added.

Inda Fatinaware from the
department of environment and social risk mitigation at NGO Sawit Watch, expressed the same concerns. She said land conversion by companies threatened farmers’ livelihoods.

“We cannot balance continued population growth with agriculture land. Unfortunately, the amount of land available continues to decrease due to conversion and other uses by big companies,” she said.

Yuyun Harmono, the program officer of the Anti-Debt Coalition, said that even paid farmers accepted very low pay, well below the minimum wage.

The latest data from the Association of Indonesian Agriculture Graduates in July 2011 showed that farmers on average accepted very low monthly pay. Those with half a hectare of land accepted
Rp 750,000 (US$ 87.95) per month.

“Farmers who do not own land accept only Rp 250,000 per month,” Yuyun said.

He said the issue would worsen as 40 percent to 60 percent of the money was spent on fulfilling daily needs. Therefore, the agriculture sector no longer attracted young men to become farmers. “Most farmers are more than 45 years old,” Yuyun said. (fem)